TREATMENT OF CANCER

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22135, 3 July 1937, Page 16

TREATMENT OF CANCER

A PATIENT'S STORY

SUCCESS CLAIMED FOR DIETETIC MEASURES

EXPERIENCE OF CHRTSTC HI RCH RKSIDENT

Nun.- year.- a.ujo Mr G. F. Laurence, of Durham street. Christchurch. received an injury from which developed a cancerous condition of an eye socket. The removal of the eye was one of ihe simplest cf the many surgical operation.-, which followed. After 19 operation.- hr- v.ts told that the condition was incurable, and that he must inderyo operations at. intervals of three to six months. For most of the time he suffered almost unbear-.

able pain, and for periods of up to a fortnight was unable to sleep. Five months ago he began a course of treatment under Miss M. G. Davies, of NewBrighton, and formerly matron of the Palmerston North Public Hospital. "For the last four months he has suffered no pain, and lias slept normally. His mental outlook on life has changed entirely, and he is confident t>[ being cured of his ailment. This is. briefly, the story told to "The Press" yesterday by Mr Lawrence. He has had no surgical treatment since he came under the care of Miss Davies. He keeps to a strict diet as directed by Miss Davies. and receives other treatment, the purpose of which is to keep the system clear of impurities. Mr Lawrence received the injuries in 1928. when he was an employee of the Christchurch Tramway Board. He was severly burned on the right side of the face and neck by boiling bitumen. He said yesterday that after this accident the eye socket and the lower lid of the eye began to pucker, and he received radium and ultra-violet ray treatment at the Christchurch Public Hospital. This brought no apparent benefit, and he consulted a specialist in Dunedin in 1930. Under this specialist's instructions the eye was removed. Grafting Operations

From then he periodically visited the Christchurch Public Hospital until 1934, to receive treatment with ultraviolet rays and radium packs.' This, he said, brought no relief from his pain, and in the same year skin frOm the chest, arm, and leg was grafted to the empty socket to fill the cavity. After three months the grafted skin had rotted away. For the next two years. Mr Lawrence said, he underwent similar operations. In all, there were 19 operations, and after the last he was told that he could not be cured. He was told that it would be necessary to undergo grafting operations every three to six months, but he refused to continue receiving treatment along these lines. Mr Lawrence said he then consulted a doctor in Wanganui, who advised him to take treatment from Miss Davies. He began this treatment in February of this year, and for the last four months had had the first continued relief from pain since his accident. He was able to rest and to sleep without pain, and felt infinitely better than he had for nine years. "Almost a Lunatic"

"For most of that time I was almost • walking lunatic," he said. "I could not sleep for the agony. It was nothing for me to get up at night and take eight or nine aspirin tablets in the hope of getting to sleep. Sometimes I would not get a wink of sleep for a fortnight. Now I sleep seven or eight hours a night, need no drugs. and have no pain. Now I can read, and occasionally go to the pictures. 1 know that this relief has come to me from the treatment I have received from Miss Davies. My mental outlook has changed entirely, and I am more than confident that I will be cured."