“Hern excellently describes living with cancer.” The Lancet
We mentioned in a previous article that our proudest moment as a publisher came with Keith Hern’s appearance as an advocate for a mouth cancer charity on ITV’s This Morning and the recent review in The Lancet came very close as well. The Lancet is the most revered of medical journals and to even get considered important enough for a review is an honour. Below are comments and extracts from the long review which appears in Volume 11, December 2010.
Bangers and Mash charts Keith’s battle against throat cancer with the help of NLP and the review is glowing on how well Keith describes that journey.
“Hern excellently describes living with cancer – working out how to tell family and friends, and combining everyday life with the endless hospital appointments, scans, and blood tests. Hern uses italics to express his thoughts and differentiate them from what he actually says to medical staff, on the whole this effectively communicates the “daily turmoil” of what is actually going on behind his clichéd brave face”.
Several hospitals, including the Royal Marsden where Keith was treated are using the book with patients. A recent comment from a team leader there reaffirms the Lancet’s comments;
“Yesterday, I was in a research session looking at the role of acupuncture to resolve dryness of the mouth after radiotherapy. There were about six participants during the session and while they got all these needles stuck on them, one of the patients talked about your book. He said that he thoroughly enjoyed reading your book and that it gave him reassurance that he was not alone in what he had gone through.”
That seems to be a key role for the book that is born out in dozens of testimonials from around the world. The frankness and honesty combined with the level of detail on the process he went through is helping lots of patients – facing all types of cancers. One patient fed back;
“Had an amazing day today met the team of docs and nurses who are going to make me better, they could not believe how happy and positive I was. I know our cancers are both different but i didn’t stop talking about your book ….and how step by step it helped me understand so much. I never knew what pet and ct scans where or radio therapy was but your book told me not only what it does but how it feels which most docs dont know because they have never had it done”
The Lancet article also comments on how helpful Keith’s photography throughout the book is in painting the picture for cancer patients.
“The photographic diary of his cancer treatment is a more interesting and effective way of illustrating his treatment that using words alone, and generally this photographic approach works very well”.
The articles echos at the end the sentiment of many readers of the book;
“Bangers and Mash is a very personal look at the day-to-day reality of coping with cancer and the positive outcome of Hern’s treatment makes it an uplifting read”.
As one doctor’s review on Amazon says, it is a must read for all doctors, cancer sufferers and their families. Bangers and Mash is available from all good bookstores, Amazon Kindle and iBooks for the iPad. More on Keith’s battle in the Daily Mail article comparing his fight with that of Michael Douglas.
Bangers and Mash
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