Archived from Charlotte Gerson's booklet

Story

Avrill got married at age 20, in October 1971 in her native
Australia. In early 1972, she developed symptoms involving sore
and swollen joints, especially in her knees and hands. During her
second pregnancy, in 1973/4, all her symptoms mysteriously
disappeared. However, they returned after the baby was born.

During all this time the doctors had been unable to make a
definite diagnosis. Only in late 1976 did a specialist in Melbourne
diagnose systemic lupus erythematosus. The diagnosis was confirmed
by tests done on specimens sent to the United States.

By 1978, Avrill had long periods during which she was completely
incapacitated. In 1979, she was hospitalized for a week.
That is when she started taking steroids, in the form of cortisone
injections. Her husband reported that her knees would swell up
like footballs; the doctors would drain fluid from them and then
inject cortisone. Even though Avrill had developed a high pain
tolerance, the pain was often so intense that she spent nights
sobbing and hitting her arms on the side of the bed.

All through the 1980s, she continued the heavy doses of
steroids and needed almost constant care for all her physical
needs. In 1989, her husband retired to the country to in order to
be free to take care of her. By 1992, Avrill required morphine.
“There’s nothing else we can do,” the doctors told the Bishops.
But that year a friend gave them A Cancer Therapy. After reading
Dr. Max Gerson’s book, Avrill’s husband thought that this program
for detoxifying the body and rebuilding it might indeed help
her. However, Avrill objected to the need to take coffee enemas, so
they dropped the idea.

By early 1993, Avrill was so ill and in such severe pain that she
received two morphine injections daily, plus 75mg of prednisone
and sleeping pills. One day near the end of March, Avrill said that
she “had had enough,” and that she wanted to try the Gerson
Therapy.

One thing her husband noticed during the first days on the
Therapy was the “bad odor” Avrill’s body gave off — the odor of
a dead animal. Within days, her husband reported, she was able to
urinate properly for the first time in many months. The healing
reactions were often violent, but enemas gave her considerable
relief. Avrill admitted that occasionally she strayed from the diet.
These errant episodes were invariably followed by a trip to the
hospital for a morphine injection!

By 1994, Avrill’s health had improved dramatically. For the first
time in 20 years, she had longer and longer periods without pain.
By 1998, she had weaned herself off prednisone, and by early
1999 she was drug-free — and remains so. Since that time, Avrill
has been able to run their country property unassisted. She has
painted and repaired the inside of their house, mows seven acres
of lawn, landscapes gardens, moves rocks and more. Such physical
accomplishments are particularly remarkable since only a few
years earlier she had been unable to lift a plate from the table,
take a shower, or put on make-up.

In 1999, Avrill had two operations to straighten her fingers,
which had been bending backwards. The damage apparently was
done by the years of being medicated by drugs used to control
pain and swelling. Her operation incisions healed quickly and
without a scar or any infection. In previous years, a cut or a
scratch would get infected and take weeks and even months to
heal. (Please note that the medical profession generally considers
lupus an “autoimmune disease,” with the immune system working
overtime!)