Hello

Although you talk about one illness, cancer treatment, your point is more generic. The main problem I feel is that medicine in homogenous which gives them a huge power clout over patients. Why? Because illness is a silo. Each patient is isolated from the start and patient groups are usually for one illness set or they are connected to the medical institution so are submissive to this bureaucracy. Yet the characteristics of illness are generic or in broad subgroups.

In my view ‘illness homogeneity’ groups are the powersource to override this MediGod position. A collaboration across multiple illness silos through activism and co-ordinated ‘treatment access’ advocacy. Patients need to get joined together, political and militant. Pete and Hannah are unusual – they are getting support. What patient normally gets that? Certainly not my friend’s best friend who died with a brain tumor after being treated like a crazy person by the NHS despite public siezures, migranes that made her vomit, unconsiousness. She was told she was making it up. When she collapsed in the street and wouldn’t wake up they gave her a scan. She died 3 weeks later. She was 23. Did her death change anything? No.

What Hannah and Pete have done is extraordinary. Yet this will not be enough to help get accessible treatment or to change the establishment. It’s not just drive, passion or vision or even a life being saved or lost that can change things but method and collectivity. A patient may know his doctor is corrupt but if he’s alone and ill, he’ll accept the corruption.

Patients will not change MediGod madness from the bottom up, from speaking to a GP. Patients can only smash their poor rights from the top down. By getting Bills into Parliament or before the Senate that are passed into law that allows choice. The medical boards will not be more open and Big Pharma will never do anything that will affect their money. Patients need to be political. And out of their silos.

You wrote your comment on this blog site because you had nowhere else to write it. I wrote my response here because I had nowhere else to write it. And so my case is proved. If there was any form of successful homogenous activist groups in common knowledge, you and I would both be there. This blog would be linked to there. That site would be linked to here… Research units like Cancer Research UK don’t take this cause up. It’s not their job to. So that’s the second point. There are no big organisations (charities etc) that can strong arm change.

Can something be done, yes of course. But it must be a new approach. And I think Pete might be the man for the role of spearhead…

Shelly, thank you. We had to raise the money, e mail me at info@teamhannah.com if you want help getting in contact with the clinic, you don’t have to have all the money before you go xx Pete x