Letter to Observer re Burzynski clinic
My email to the readers' editor at the Observer re this article on raising the money to send a girl with cancer to the Burzynski clinic in USA. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2011/nov/20/a-family-gripped-by-cancer The worst year of my life: cancer has my family in its grip Hi. I think you should take a really serious look at what has gone on around the publication of this article. Of course it’s a moving account of knowing a child with cancer. But the whole emphasis is on people clubbing together to allow her to receive some treatment which is unavailable on the NHS. The overall impression is horribly misleading, which is that there is some expensive and sophisticated treatment which is for some reason inaccessible through the NHS. Actually, the obvious reason it’s not provided by the NHS is that it plain doesn’t work. Unlike a number of treatments which are available on the NHS (e.g. herceptin), the chemicals used by this clinic are fairly simple and easy to manufacture and