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About the book Fighting Cancer: A Survival Guide
conversations and correspondence
Resources: the start of an adventure
If you have cancer; if you're caring for someone who has it
Cancer Treatment: Personal Stories
Readings from the cancer literature
Other cancer books you might find useful
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About the author
Hi. My name is Jonathan Chamberlain. Look at this photo. Bernadette and I had a lot of fun trying to cycle this weird contraption along an empty road in China. What a happy time we had that day! It is to the memory of Bernadette that I dedicate my book `Fighting Cancer - A Survival Guide' I wrote this book because Bernadette was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1993. She underwent surgical investigation, radiation and chemotherapy and was dead exactly a year later. Looking back, if I were to summarise my experience I would say the biggest mistake we made was to do what the doctors advised. Bernadette could not have died sooner if we had done nothing. In addition, that year - the year of her illness - caused us a great deal of seemingly unavoidable, painful relationship difficulties as we responded to her illness in very different ways. Yet, how could we have avoided these difficulties? If only we had had a book that could lead us through the whole field from an intelligent unideological point of view. I read over 150 books and could not find the book I was looking for. Most of the books were selling single cures. Others talked about a range of alternative cures but gave no rationale for choosing this route over the orthodox route. Many others vilified anyone who suggested anything other than surgery, radiation and chemotherapy...What was the truth? And even when Bernadette died I was still faced with the questions: What will I do if I get cancer? What will I do if Patrick, my son, gets cancer?
I could see that if I didn't keep on looking for answers - and above all for a framework in which I could make a decision - I would be destined to repeat the folly and suffering that marked Bernadette's last year. So I wrote this book partly as therapy and partly as a means of arriving at an answer for myself - an answer that I could share with friends - an answer that would lessen the suffering of mankind. I owe that much to Bernadette for the suffering she went through. It must not be in vain! `Fighting Cancer - A Survival Guide' is the book I wish I had been able to share with Bernadette. It's the book I hope you will let me share with you. It is not emotional, it is not a diatribe, it is not angry. It is thoughtful, concerned, alarmed. Who am I when I'm not writing about cancer? I am an English teacher who gradually moved into writing textbooks for secondary school students in Hong Kong. This is how I make my living. Apart from `Fighting Cancer - A Survival Guide' I have written two short books on Chinese folk religion - `Chinese Gods' - an exploration of the major deities of the Chinese folk pantheon and the system of belief that underlies this. The other is an essay on the Cheung Chau Bun Festival - Cheung Chau is the island I live on in Hong Kong and every year round about May there is a three day festival - which is a wonderful experience of colours and sounds. The purpose of the festival is to feed the hungry ghosts for another year so that they won't plague the island. Apart from my writing, I am involved with two charities that I founded: The Hong Kong Down Syndrome Association and Mental Handicap Network China. These are dedicated to the short, seemingly tragic, but ultimately transforming life of my daughter Stevie
Stevie was born with Down Syndrome. As a result of a hole in the heart she had an operation. Something went wrong. She suffered an oxygen shortage that caused brain damage leaving her blind, epileptic and so profoundly handicapped that she could not sit or roll over. Yet she was, when she recovered from the trauma of the operation and the seizures were brought under control, a happy girl, a girl who centred us and made us understand the power of love. Quite simply, she changed our lives. She taught me about pain and about fighting back stubbornly. With a few other parents I founded the Hong Kong Down Syndrome Association. This is now a successful non-profit organisation with over 1,000 members that is very active in supporting parents of children with Down Syndrome in Hong Kong. Out of this experience, another - grander - idea grew: a charity that would help the whole of China develop services for its estimated 30 million mentally handicapped for whom nothing - or nothing much - is currently available. We know that the key elements are to connect the drive and motivation of parents (who want desperately to have services - services of a good professional quality) with expertise (our team is led by world authority on Down Syndrome, Professor Brian Stratford and his wife Maureen - themselves parents of a girl with Down Syndrome who also tragically died at the age of 8) and to make communication and networking an important focus of our work. That is how Mental Handicap Network China evolved. (Anyone wanting more information about this work can email me). When I’m not writing books, I like to spend time hanging around with Patrick.
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