What’s this? Article in The Courier Mail, Queensland., October 19, 2008
By Fran Metcalf
THERE’S a big difference between recovering from cancer and surviving it.
“For many people, the point where they are told they are cancer-free is often more stressful than the original diagnosis,” according to Ian Gawler, a cancer survivor himself who now counsels people with the disease.
“That’s because when you’re going through treatment you’re doing something and there’s a focus. When you get the all clear a few years later, there’s nothing.”
Gawler was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer at the age of 24. His leg was amputated at the hip but less than a year later he developed secondaries and was told he had six months to live.
That was 1975 and, ever since, his life has been devoted to practising and promoting meditation, nutrition, a healthy lifestyle and natural remedies as vital methods for preventing and managing the disease.
Recently in Brisbane to deliver his 25th annual meditation and healing workshops at the Relaxation Centre of Queensland, Gawler says the mainstream medical fraternity remains just as reluctant in 2008 as it was 30 years ago to embrace a holistic approach to healing.
“For me, healing involves body, emotion, mind and spirit,” Gawler says.
“We just come through this rather extraordinary period of medical history where scientists have treated people as though their heads are not connected to their bodies.
“This was encouraged by things like antibiotics which were amazing discoveries but cancer doesn’t respond very well to a single drug and depression needs more than a pill.”
Gawler was working as a veterinarian and competing in decathlons when he was diagnosed in the mid-1970s and his journey has been documented in a soon-to-be-released biography, The Dragon’s Blessing.
Apart from a strict dietary regime, Gawler discovered Melbourne relaxation guru Dr Ainslie Meares, who was one of the first advocates in Australia for the healing potential of meditation.
“Ainslie Meares believed that by meditating profoundly, one could return to a deep natural balance where the body’s healing systems could be powerfully activated to bring about a healing from within,” he says.
But meditation isn’t the only lifestyle skill to learn or change when it comes to managing cancer, Gawler says.
“When I talk about lifestyle, it’s exercise, nutrition, how you manage your relationships, what’s going on with your mind – everything involved in our day-to-day lives,” he says. “There’s a huge error of omission in the standard management of cancer in that lifestyle is seen as disconnected in some way. For instance, one of the best things people (with cancer) can do these days is to exercise.
“Research shows that following treatment for primary breast cancer, women who exercise half-an-hour daily reduce their risk of dying by 50 per cent.”
Melbourne oncologist and Australian Medical Association spokesman Dr Allan Zimet says he started advising his female patients with breast cancer of the value of exercise about a year ago when the scientific evidence was proven.
“Over the past 25 years, both camps (mainstream and complementary medicine) have moved more to middle ground and recognised neither group cures cancer for many people,” Zimet says.
Gawler believes a preventative diet should be plant-based, whole foods with a minimal amount of meat, no dairy and a preference for Omega 3 and unsaturated fats.
That’s the basis of the food offered at the Yarra Valley Living Centre, a residential retreat for people with cancer and their families run by Gawler and his wife Ruth.
Set in the picturesque Yarra Valley less than 100km outside Melbourne,
the main focus is meditation and diet but Gawler says there’s also the opportunity to learn how to “die well”.
“Death is real and often comes without warning. We can either ignore it like a lot of people in our culture do or we can live a life that’s informed by it.”
The Dragon’s Blessing (Allen and Unwin) by Guy Allenby is in bookstores now. More info at www.gawler.org
Filed under: Media Coverage | Tagged: exercise, Ian Gawler, lifestyle, managing relationships, nutrition, The Courier Mail
