Archived from Charlotte Gerson's booklet

Story

   Deborah Dole's story started in early February 1978, when she
was 24. She had a rash on her abdomen and consulted a dermatologist,
Dr. McGinley, at Kaiser in San Francisco for a diagnosis.
He noted on her right arm a black mole with a purple spot, which
looked suspect to him. He biopsied it on February 15th. A few
days later the pathologist reported that the mole was positive for
melanoma, determined to be at Stage IV. Debbie underwent
surgery on February 28th, and at that time the surgeon told her
that he thought he had got it all.

   Meanwhile Debbie had no new symptoms, except that the skin
rash didn't go away for a year. She did have counseling for anger
with the Shanti system. In July she noticed a swelling the size of a
golf ball in her right armpit. She went back to Kaiser and her
doctors proposed a liver scan and surgery on the tumor, with an
overall hopeless prognosis. Prior to her visit at Kaiser, Debbie had
read Jaquie Davison's book, Cancer Winner, describing her
recovery from widespread terminal melanoma on the Gerson
Therapy. That book had convinced Debbie that, if she ever had a
recurrence, she would go the Gerson way. She called the Gerson
Institute, went to the Mexican Gerson Hospital in August '78, and
started the treatment.

   She was very frightened and thought she was facing death.
However, after six weeks she had a full-blown healing reaction
with fever, nausea, redness (inflammation) and much else. After
that the "golf ball" disappeared! She stayed on the full Therapy
for about 14 months and then slowly got into "a more average
diet," including going out for meals. She valued sociability, and
the Gerson Therapy had forced her into isolation. Also, her
friends tried to discourage her, with comments like "If this therapy
were any good, everybody would use it." Only her husband and
mother continued to support and encourage her.

   In the experience of Gerson doctors, alcohol and street drugs
are often involved in cases of melanoma among young people
under 30. As early as in her sophomore and junior years in High
School, Debbie had used marijuana along with alcohol, often two
to three times a week.

   As Debbie's Gerson Therapy months were ending, her husband
became ill and was hospitalized for over a year. She visited him
two or three times a week, while also taking care of kids where
she lived during that time. In late '89, when her mother died and
her father disappeared, Debbie faced severe emotional problems.
She frequently went out to dinner with a friend and had "good
wine" every night. In '92 a dear friend of hers died in a plane
accident; at the same time she developed serious gynecological
problems. These lasted until '96, when she had abdominal surgery.
She has been well since.

   Around Christmas 2000, she went for a regular gynecological
check-up. The doctor felt a lump in her breast and urged her to do
a mammogram. The results looked suspicious, with lumps in both
breasts. He assured her that 90% of such lumps are benign, yet by
late January 2001 the surgeon urged Debbie to have them
removed.

   However, Lent began and Debbie fasted, abandoned all indulgences,
returned close to the Gerson Therapy, and "felt good,
clearer, and rid of a lot of anger." The lumps didn't change; they
didn't grow larger and harder, nor smaller and softer. But now,
aged 47, Debbie says that she feels the best she has for eight years.
Her recovery from terminal melanoma totals 23 years.