QUACK CANCER TREATMENT EXPOSED, THANKS TO ASKE MEMBER

ASKE member John Birchall of Colwyn Bay recently scored a direct hit against the 'cashing in on cancer' industry. John spotted a half-page editorial in a North Wales newspaper in March of this year entitled 'Hypnotherapy: An Alternative Approach to Cancer'. In this piece, a 'hypnotherapist' from Caernarfon by the name of Mr. Bryan Evans claimed that all cancers are triggered by a 'significant emotional event' and that 'by working on and resolving the issues behind the trigger events we should be able to stop the cells from growing and allow the body to heal itself.' He said he would be able to do this using 'a mixture of Hypnotherapy, N.L.P. and imagery'.

As a result of John's enquiries BBC Wales's investigative television program 'X Ray' broadcast an exposé of Mr. Evans's practices on 24.5.04. In this feature one of the programme's female researchers posed as a patient who had a lump in her breast and was awaiting a mammogram. This researcher (Sion) also told Mr. Evans that her aunt had died of breast cancer.

Mr. Evans told her that different cancers had different emotional triggers and that 'providing you can resolve the issues behind the trigger, you should be able to stop the growth and allow the body to heal itself'. Although Mr. Evans stated that he would never stop someone using conventional treatment, he told the researcher she would not need chemotherapy if she underwent his therapy. He also told her this was 'the most effective therapy going'. He further stated:

'If I can prevent you from going for chemotherapy, great, that's what it's all about. If I can find the trigger event and resolve it for you it should be able to stop it'.

He said that each session costs £50 and she would need up to four.

Accordingly a meeting was arranged with Mr. Evans to discuss this treatment further. During this meeting he again repeated the claim that, while he would not advise abandoning conventional treatment, if the 'patient' followed his therapy it could result in her not needing chemotherapy. He told her that her breast cancer was triggered by a separation or quarrel, and that a sudden death or loss could trigger ovarian or testicular cancer. He claimed that her cancer was caused by her separation from her partner and that in order to stop her cancer cells growing and allow her body to heal she needed to resolve that issue by getting together again with him, finding someone new or becoming strong enough not to care.

During his explanation of the 'science' behind this theory he claimed, 'there is a lot of misdiagnosis'. He said that if her biopsy showed cancer in the milk ducts it was the cells healing, not cancer. This is what he in fact said:

'If we can resolve the conflict, it's all about resolving the conflict, yeah, that's what it's about. But you don't need the doctors. It's not about hypnotherapy Sion it's about finding a resolution to the growth. The body will stop and it will go to heal itself, but again this is the stuff I was taught. If it makes sense to you Sion give it a go, if not OK, you carry on the traditional way you'd have gone anyway. But I still feel regardless Sion everyone needs more self-esteem, more confidence, to feel good about themselves. My therapy will give you that, but my job is to resolve the conflict, shut off the reason why they (the cancer cells) are multiplying.

'OK if it's this one (cancer in the milk ducts) they (doctors) would have taken a biopsy here (points to diagram), and if it's in the milk ducts, and if it's cell multiplication, they will tell you - you have cancer. But what I'm saying, and again, it's me against the rest of the world. You will have resolved it. It is the cell multiplication. It will be the healing phase, and when anything is healing the cells will be repairing, and there will be cell growth. It is not cancer, it is your body healing itself. You will feel a tightness in your boob, in your nipple and if they took a scan, you will see a calcification, but it is not cancer……
'Chemotherapy is not the answer. You see what's happening is the person is still not resolving the conflict, the reason the cells are multiplying you know. That's what I'm here for……

'The medical profession is all about money. They really don't care, they really don't care. They really don't. It's about money. You know, I've been stopping people smoking for years. Hypnotherapy is the most successful way of stopping people smoking. Do you think the doctors say, 'Yes Bri come in to us'? They still give out patches, which have a 16% success rate. It's about money, it is; it always has been….'

He said the medical profession would not allow a cure for cancer. He said:

'Imagine how many jobs I would, how much money I would destroy. They wouldn't have one man like me. They'd prefer to shoot me than let me go out there'.

Before this programme went out, Mr. Evans was listed in an organisation known as the General Hypnotherapy Register and in the NHS's Directory of Alternative and Complementary Practitioners. In 2002 he was instructed by the Advertising Standards Authority to stop advertising a 95% success rate for treating smoking addiction.

In the editorial referred to earlier, we are informed that Mr. Evans's practices are based on the work of a certain Dr Hamer. It transpires that this is Geert Reike Hamer, an Austrian therapist. This man was imprisoned for the illegal practice of medicine in 2002 following the deaths of patients he had treated.