In memory of my girlfriend Mish Lithgow - we left this world in Jan 2023.
Over the weekend I binge watched Apple Cider Vinegar - the story of two young wellness influencers (one who did have cancer and the other who claimed to but didn’t). And I was triggered because I remember both Mish and I followed these two ‘influencers’ and we talked about their journey.
In short…
Over a decade ago, Belle Gibson, a young Melbourne mum shook the world by storm by proclaiming that she not only suffered from brain cancer but she managed to cure it through holistic therapies, in particular, consuming a whole foods diet. She radicalised the wellness industry by claiming that health conditions such as cancer could now be healed.
People were drawn to Belle for several reasons but in particular, she gave hope to those who had possibly lost hope. I too followed Belle’s journey from afar, mainly because I too was looking at more alternative therapies to support my health and well-being. Her supposed story was intriguing and she most definitely knew how to draw on the heartstrings of the world and lure us in. Yet what we soon discovered is that she heavily exploited and profited off vulnerable people. She ultimately preyed on the whole world and created a mass following to build her name and her bank account.
What we soon learned about Belle was that she was an absolute fraud. She never had cancer and she had created this whole story to profit off. It was abominable for so many reasons including not only how she preyed on those who were vulnerable but it also caused a huge uproar and distrust of any natural alternative medicine and therapy
The movie also features another prominent individual; the real-life story of a beautiful girl named Jess Ainscough who too was fighting cancer, who had gone into remission following nontraditional therapies, but whose cancer returned and unfortunately she passed away. The storyline heavily focuses on Jess pushing her narrative on using natural therapies to heal her, only for it to come back. It is important to note how Jess and her mum were portrayed through this docuseries was highly triggering and highly insensitive and I dread to think about the impact that this had had on her family and friends.
Whilst I understand that the premise of the series is to scrutinise two individuals who advocated for more alternative therapies to heal/cure cancer, their stories differ considerably. Belle Gibson didn't have cancer. Jess Ainscough did, yet despite this and despite her death, even with her death, we are judging her for the choices she made over her body. Yes, i do understand that as an influencer and as someone who is in the public eye, people feel it's their right to review and assess all aspects of their life, especially if one is making claims like healing their body with natural therapies.
However, I do believe that we are failing to look at the bigger issue and this is that this movie unfairly represents that as human beings we have a right to choice and a right over what occurs to our body, yet this seems to be overlooked. It also heavily dismisses the use of natural and alternative therapies to complement our health/well-being and healing of the body.
As someone who has had a close friend pass away from cancer, I was highly triggered, especially knowing the judgement that Mish had faced over the choices that she made over her. To my dear friend Mish, who as a teenager, experienced and fought numerous autoimmune battles that we simply were not privy to. It was also Mish who in her 30s fought cancer and went into remission a whopping number of times. 2 years ago, Mish passed away from cancer, yet during her journey with cancer, her dedication and her commitment to healing her body was more than inspirational. We spoke a lot about her treatment. She integrated both eastern and western treatment and was under the care of an extensive medical team.
Yet during her time on earth, she held immense heartache over the criticisms and judgements people (especially those near and dear), projected onto her lifestyle choices, especially in leveraging more integrated natural therapies. This is what drew us closer together.
Both of us had been criticised heavily for the choices that we made to heal our bodies from pain and autoimmune and Mish, from cancer.
Mish was a warrior, one of the strongest and most resilient people I have ever met. She was my hero and I told her this before she passed. She was one of the few people who fought off stage 4 cancer. This is someone who lived and breathed fighting a cure for her cancer to live. This is someone who didn’t want to die. This is someone who was so well versed and educated, who undertook radiation and chemotherapy but who also researched the hell out of every option available to her and who also didn't want to go through the absolute hell of having to go through chemo and radiation again. In the end she did and it absolutely destroyed her body.
When Mish was close to passing, she told me that one of her greatest heartaches was that someone very near to her told her that she was selfish for not undertaking chemo and that she was choosing to die instead of having chemo. The weight of their words engulfed her. She felt so alone in her journey, isolated for her choices, misunderstood, judged and often guilt-ridden for those choses that she made over her body.
She received much backlash from friends who criticised her for her choices, for choosing natural therapies to complement her conventional therapies, for choosing organic, choosing to reduce the toxic load in order to reduce the cancer cells from spreading and further inflammation in her body, for choosing a lifestyle that provided her with peace over chaos. She held so much pain around the judgements that people enforced upon her.
Whilst many of the public seem to advocate for conventional medicine and seemingly disapprove of nonconventional methods, what we fail to realise is that there is a human being, a living person who is being impacted by the decisions that he/she makes over their body. Most of these decisions aren’t made lightly.
We assume that we should have some sort of ownership or part in the decisions others make. We assume that people owe us some sort of explanation or justification for why or why they do or don’t do something. Yet the honest brutal truth. We don’t and why should we?
We also assume that they shouldn’t have any choice over the medical decisions.
As humans and according to The Convention of Human Rights, we possess the freedom of speech and freedom of choice. Within the medical profession, the term “Duty of Risk” is a legal term that is used within the health care profession where people have the right to make their own decisions, even if those decisions involve some risk. For example, if an individual who is being treated for lung cancer decides to smoke against professional medical advice, this individual still has a right to. Similarly, people who choose different therapies to support their healing have the right to choose this, even if this contradicts someone else.
Whilst we may be divided about such things as conventional versus nonconventional medicine, what we need to agree on is that less judgment needs to be imposed but rather, understanding the person who is impacted and respecting their choices, regardless of our personal views.
Women are already hugely ignored with health care and health issues. They too are often misrepresented. What we don’t need is any more division but respect for the choices that people make, even if it doesn’t align with what we may choose to do… or not do.
Whilst I wish not to put any more air time to Belle Gibson (apart from the fact that she should be held accountable), let’s not dismiss integrative non-conventional therapies but integrate them alongside Western medicine practices to treat the whole person. Let's remember that our human rights are to make choices over our bodies and no one should need to justify their decision to anyone else.
Please note that permission was received from Mish’s beautiful husband to reference Mish in this piece and to continue advocating for people to make choices over their medical decisions and treatment.
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