What are your thoughts on Jess Ainscough?

[i-need-a-martini]

She is the young woman with a slow growing (but likely curable) cancer who refused conventional treatment, made money from selling her natural treatment (and from related products like tshirts etc) and lectured and published books about the effectivieness of eschewing traditional medicine etc.

And is now sadly dead.

Personally I think she paid the price for ignorance and did a lot of harm while she lived. Even as she was close to death she made excuses for why her treatment didn't work and encouraged others to continue theirs.

Hopefully her death will be a wake up call to others.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/cancer-death-of-wellness-warrior-jess-ainscough--brings-focus-...

[gleee58]

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@am*3 wrote:

Going by these two comments, I can understand her choice.

Very sad for the family, to loose both her and her mother.

Ms Ainscough's family strongly rejects the suggestion that her life would have been extended with conventional treatment and say her treating clinicians said this was not the case. 

Surgical oncologist and blogger David Gorsk iwrote that Ms Ainscough clearly had noble motivations but was both a victim of, and complicit in, promoting dangerous therapies.

"Jess Ainscough had a shot, one shot. She didn't take it," he said. "What saddens me even more is that I can understand why she didn't take it, as, through a horrible quirk of fate, her one shot involved incredibly disfiguring surgery and the loss of her arm.

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Yes, I can understand, especially goven her age but I wish someone had taken her to meet some inspiring people that have lost limbs through tragic accidents or explosions so she could perhaps see there was hope for a one armed woman to find a place in the world.  

She could have kept writing with one arm.  

[i-need-a-martini]

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@gleee58 wrote:

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I think it's great shame that she let the fear of losing her arm dictate that her life will be very much shortened.  

I think it's where the beauty industry is at odds with the wellness industry.  She seems to equate wellness with keeping all her limbs in tact rather than being cancer free.

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I agree.

Yes she made her choice stupid as it was. I don't disagree with anyone making a choice. Although my biggest issue is that she marketed that choice very successfully.

But I have a big problem with her inability to look beyond the loss of a limb in order to save her life. 

And I have to wonder how her parents stood by and allowed her to make that choice. I hope that they did everything they could to convence her otherwise.

I know if it was my daughter, I would be doing EVERYTHING to make sure she had a fighting chance - I'd be taking traditional advice AND looking at alternatives. 

i AGREE

[i-need-a-martini]

Compare her to women now making choices to have breasts removed. I think that for most women having their breats removed would be more psychologically difficult than a limb.

[gleee58]

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@i-need-a-martini wrote:

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@gleee58 wrote:

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I think it's great shame that she let the fear of losing her arm dictate that her life will be very much shortened.  

I think it's where the beauty industry is at odds with the wellness industry.  She seems to equate wellness with keeping all her limbs in tact rather than being cancer free.

 _______________

I agree.

Yes she made her choice stupid as it was. I don't disagree with anyone making a choice. Although my biggest issue is that she marketed that choice very successfully.

But I have a big problem with her inability to look beyond the loss of a limb in order to save her life. 

And I have to wonder how her parents stood by and allowed her to make that choice. I hope that they did everything they could to convence her otherwise.

I know if it was my daughter, I would be doing EVERYTHING to make sure she had a fighting chance - I'd be taking traditional advice AND looking at alternatives. 

i AGREE

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Her mum was diagnosed with cancer, followed the daughter's lead, followed the wellness approach and died.  That happened sometime after Jess was diagnosed.