Archived from Charlotte Gerson's booklet

Story

   In 1987 Janet Pottinger was diagnosed with an in-situ intraductal
carcinoma of the right breast. At that time she had a successful
career that often required her to attend business luncheons and
dinners. In 1984, she had traveled to China on a holiday and had
received several vaccinations, with boosters in 1985. Following
these, she felt less and less well, but had no specific symptoms.
(For further discussion of the problem of vaccinations, see Confessions
of a Medical Heretic, by Robert Mendelsohn, M. D.)

   After seeing a homeopath in 1987 for several symptoms, Janet
decided to have a complete checkup. It didn't register at the time
that the nurse was spending a lot of time during the checkup on
Janet's breast screening, nor did the need for a second mammogram
alarm her, "because the first one was unclear, which might
have been a problem with the machine."

   Two weeks later her general practitioner suggested that she see
a specialist, but Janet was just too tired to think of any serious
problem. She consulted a surgeon who never mentioned the word
"cancer," but said that "something" had shown on the mammogram,
and Janet needed surgery urgently He said he had no idea
"how long it had been there" [emphasis ours]. Janet and her
husband drove home "in dejected, stunned silence and then, at
home, hugged and cried a lot." A few days later she had a lumpectomy
at the Cromwell Hospital in London. She specifically
forbade the surgeon to remove anything but the lump - ("We
were still not using the word 'cancer,'" she said), no mastectomy,
no lymph node dissection. She went home the day after the
operation, "shaken, scared but relieved."

   "What I'd dreaded most about the operation was having the
anesthesia and being completely in the hands of other people, at
their mercy." Early one morning, soon after the operation, the
surgeon called to say that the tissue was malignant but that he had
"got it all out!" Janet continues, "The beautiful summer day
suddenly looked brighter and sunnier and the sky was bluer. My
husband and I went on a gentle stroll in the park. But by the
evening of the same day the surgeon urgently called to see me
again. By 9:30 PM we were in his office. He told us that in his
experience there was a 50/50 chance for my tumor to recur, and
that a mastectomy would keep it from coming back. If it did recur,
there was again a 50/50 chance that it would be more invasive."

   Janet seriously started to phone around and talk to friends
about options. Among others, she found Beata Bishop, who
listened and suggested that they meet. From Beata, Janet learned
about Gerson, but still sought other medical opinions. A radiologist
recommended, "Radiation tomorrow morning." Another
surgeon insisted, "More surgery." She did neither. Two years later,
and six months after a business upset, in August 1989, her cancer
was back again in the same place. At the end of that month Janet
came to the Gerson Healing Center in Mexico, after arranging her
household to return home to the full Gerson Therapy

   "One afternoon in January 1990 I woke up from a sleep, and
as I woke, I knew I had no more cancer. It was gone, I was sure."
In April a homeopath confirmed that there was no more cancer. In
January 1991 Janet had another mammogram from her surgeon.
He couldn't bring himself to admit that she was clear; instead, he
shouted at his nurse for supposedly doing something wrong with
the files. Finally Janet asked, "Does the mammogram show the
scar tissue from the '87 operation?"

      "No, there's no scar tissue."

      "Is there a tumor?"

      "No, nothing."

      The surgeon didn't charge for that consultation.

   "I just stayed close to the therapy after 18 months with juices
and daily enemas, organic food and decreasing medication. Now,
in the summer of 1996, I am alive and well, very active and still
staying close to the Therapy. I do eat out occasionally, fish sometimes,
but am mostly vegetarian."

   Janet made another observation, not unusual among recovered
patients. "I'm glad I had cancer. It caused me to evaluate my life
and what I was doing with it. Beata Bishop was a kind and
generous source of information and encouragement. I received so
much help and support from many people, friends I didn't know I
had. I met some wonderful people, had a lot of fun and have been
able to contribute something to others. My husband and I have a
deeper appreciation of each other through the Gerson experience.
I know I couldn't have succeeded without his love and support."