Archived from Charlotte Gerson's book

Story

   In September 1985, pneumonia developed for forty-six-year-old Mrs. Ronald
(Patricia) Ainey of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. Despite her being a
cigarette smoker and alcoholic beverage drinker, she had sustained good
general health throughout her life until that 1985 date. Then, in January 1986,
internist Bennett A. Horner, M.D., F.R.C.P(C), also of Nanaimo, using CAT scan
guidance, had a biopsy performed (tissue drawn out with a fine needle) from a
tumor site on Pat Ainey’s pancreas. The object of this scan and biopsy was to
differentiate pancreatic cancer from several other conditions: benign
pancreatitis, pseudocyst, islet cell carcinoma, or lymphoma. Dr. Horner
confirmed the woman's diagnosis by letter to her family physician in the same
town, A. C. Baird, M.B., CH.B, C.C.F.P Dr. Horner's letter stated: ‘Mrs. Pat
Ainey returned to see me today, January 28, 1986. I informed her that she does
have adenocarcinoma of the pancreas; there is no specific treatment indicated
presently... if she has a lot of pain or discomfort, we’d be glad to help her any
way we can.

   Dr. Horner gave the patient and her husband Ron, who were one month
away from celebrating their thirtieth wedding anniversary, more personal
advice too. “The medical specialist told me, ‘Co home, get your life in order, the
cancer is so bad it is inoperable,’ remembers Mrs. Ainey. “I went through all
the anguish, the crying, and I finally resigned myself to my own death.”

   She had learned that the malignancy had metastasized to her gallbladder,
liver, and spleen. In just a few weeks she lost more than forty-five pounds and
regularly vomited blood. She was classified as being in cytology class (stage)
II—IV pancreatic cancer (which has a projected five-year survival of 1 percent
or less). There were no curative therapies and no proven adjuvant treatment;
only palliation could be offered by orthodox oncologists to provide some pain
control or ascites reduction. She did have ascites, jaundice, pleural (chest wall)
effusion, alcoholic hepatitis, and pain. Any chemotherapy probably would kill
Pat Ainey faster than the cancer itself.°

   “When you're told by the medical profession that your days are done, that’s
who you believe,” admits Mrs. Ainey. But then she read in the Nanaimo Times
newspaper about a Victoria, B.C., man who had been cured of pancreatic cancer
by engaging in the Gerson Therapy. “I decided I wasn’t going to just bugger around crying and dying. I was going to try to live the last few months as well as I could for myself and for my family.” While skeptical at first, wondering if the Gerson hospital in Tijuana, Mexico, was a scam designed to bilk desperate people, “It was the only hope I had. What I needed was a miracle,” the woman says. “And my husband stomped his foot down and said, ‘Dammit lady, pack your bag, we're catching the eleven o'clock
boat to the mainland and going to Mexico to try this damn Gerson thing.” ”

   Ron and Pat Ainey spent two weeks at the Gerson hospital in Playas, a
suburb of Tijuana, where they learned to make her organic juices, what kinds of
foods were appropriate, and how to self-administer five coffee enemas a day.
She explains, “It wasn’t any fun, especially those ‘coffee breaks’ as we called
them. But what choice did I have except to try?”

   The Aineys had reserved two weeks to engage in the treatment, and in ten
days she began to feel considerably better than she had in months. Knowing
that she would be required to live stringently on the Gerson program for a
minimum of two years, Mrs. Ainey took up the challenge to conduct the
Gerson therapy at home. And it worked well.

   “In December 1986 my doctor told me he thought I had the cancer licked.”
A letter Dr. Baird wrote in February 1990 on another health matter states:
‘Mrs. Ainey was diagnosed as having a malignancy of her pancreas. She
received treatment of her disease outside of Canada, and I am pleased to say
that as of the present time she has no evidence of recurrence of the disease, and
what evidence of malignancy was present in 1985 has now gone.”

   In a follow-up letter he wrote to an insurance company’s law firm on that
other matter, Dr. Baird added: “In conclusion, I would like to comment that
Mrs. Ainey has survived what is generally a fatal illness and now lives life to
the full.”

   We spoke with Patricia Ainey on November 20, 1999, at which time she
acknowledged, “I feel good, excellent in fact. I’ve had these past fifteen years to
live happily and well, which I was not supposed to have. I’ve watched my
grandchildren grow up and had a lot of good times in those years.” While Mrs.
Ainey has been free of pancreatic cancer for all of this fifteen-year period, she
still drinks lots of fresh, organic vegetable juices and takes a daily coffee enema.
She also has regular blood tests and cancer markers taken, which she sends to
the Gerson hospital for evaluation. Friends and family sometimes ask why she
continues these practices if she is cured. Says husband Ron Ainey: “Pat had been looking for a lifeline and once you've found one it’s very hard to let go.”