Special Update

Our heartfelt thanks go out to all you generous people who donated money to our cause last week. (see original article here )

See the photos of the pickathon here

The total raised by the 1st January 2006 was a whopping

£728.08

So, if your name is on the list below please give yourselves a pat on the back and accept our HUGE thanks.

If your name isn’t on the list then you can still add it by donating, no matter how small a sum, up until the 16th January. Obviously you won’t qualify for the oil but that wasn’t really the point.

I would like to add that all the messages below are balm for the soul.

Liz Kruthoffer: In memory of some friends and thanks for those still in remission

This says it all.

If you were in the top 20 nearest guesses then I will email you for your address as soon as I can (although it is a bit mad with finishing off the harvest for the next few days.

I have a few notes that I would like to add. I had hoped to raise more (as shown by our £2000 target).
A few factors got in the way :

Firstly, the timing was a bit last minute (what’s new with us!) so next time we will start fundraising earlier and give people more warning.

Secondly, many people do not want to send money via the internet. We completely understand this sentiment. I apologise for refusing to take donations any other way but we are not ourselves a registered charity and it would be unethical for us to accept money on behalf of a charity. With ‘JustGiving’ the money goes straight to the charity.
You may understand my argument better by reading the email which I received below after sending out the standard request for sponsorship which asked for any monies to be sent directly to the ‘justgiving’ website…

From: Stephen Arthur [mailto:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 21 December 2005 17:32
To: Sarah Fraser
Subject: Re: New Years Day Olive Pickathon for Cancer Research - Win oil and Hamper

Please advise if you are a registered charity and if so please give full details of where all monies so far collected have gone.On the face of what you say,with respect how do you prove that what you are doing is bona fide?I am sorry to say that I find your request rather strange.I intend to post your email to the Charity Commission and the the official Cancer Charity.

Of course, since I requested all sponsorships to go directly to the charity the sentiments expressed above are completely unfounded. I would like to stress that at no time have we taken any funds for our charitable effort by cash or personal cheque – the only donations are the ones which you can see online.
It goes without saying that I have heard nothing from the Charities Commission.

Thirdly and finally, I realise that many people are wary of donating to large charities and have diverse views on ethics, may be against the use of drugs etc. I sympathise with these reasons (but obviously don’t completely agree with them since we decided to choose Cancer Research as this years charity!). If you are concerned with these issues you may want to read this email and my response which will give you an idea of my opinions on the subject.

From: Trevor Chapman [mailto:xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 21 December 2005 20:15
To: 'Sarah Fraser'
Subject: RE: New Years Day Olive Pickathon for Cancer Research - Win oil and Hamper

Dear Sarah

I am very sorry to hear of the death of your friend, and of the terrible suffering of his family.

I know that it can be most unwelcome to have one’s grief interrupted by thoughts of a different nature, and I apologise for this.

However, in the desire to do something - anything - about such a terrible disease it is easy to do the wrong thing and let passion overcome reason.

The research for which you are collecting support is looking for drugs that can be patented and sold to make money for pharmaceutical companies. These companies can well afford to pay for research of this nature and they don’t need our relatively miniscule contributions.

There is an alternative valid body of knowledge about cancer prevention and recovery, but none of it leads to profit for the pharmaceutical companies – so they not only ignore it, but also suppress it by manufacturing phoney evidence and working to make it illegal to offer such treatments or make any claims about them.

I think you are aware of the virtues of organic produce, and there is similar virtue in avoiding the pollution of our bodies with chemical poisins such as pharmaceutical drugs.

An alternative way of working towards a better future without cancer would be to expose the misguided and self-interested efforts of pharmaceutical-based Cancer Research, and to disseminate information about other pathways to health.

I do appreciate that you might prefer me not to have said these things at this time, and I apologise again.

Yours sincerely

Trevor Chapman

-----Original Message-----
From: Sarah Fraser [mailto:enquiries@casadelsole.co.uk]
Sent: 22 December 2005 11:23
To: 'Trevor Chapman'
Subject: RE: New Years Day Olive Pickathon for Cancer Research - Win oil and Hamper

Hi Trevor,

Thanks for your time in responding and I really do appreciate what you say.
I too am morally against the profits large pharmaceutical companies make out of suffering. I personally never buy any kind of drug unless it is absolutely necessary and always have a holistic and natural approach to illness and life in general.
That said, I feel that it is the responsibility of government to regulate these companies and as an individual the only recourse left to me is to veto the unnecessary ‘day to day’ drugs which are the primary source of their income.
I am not of the mind that all drugs are bad. I would agree that if you are enlightened enough then there are other routes open to you to combat illness and pain but for the great majority of the population drugs really are the only hope.
And hope in itself is a great cure – simply knowing that at least something is being done somewhere can relieve many of us from the grief of loss, the fear of illness or the desperation one feels when one is diagnosed with cancer.

Given that there is very little choice in today’s society, I would far rather line a few fat cats pockets and see drugs developed which will help and eventually cure the disease than ignore the possibility of a cure because I am lucky enough to be able to grow my own food and meditate through pain.

This issue is simply an example of the problems facing our society. Materialism, consumerism and an obscene lust for money is strangling western society.
As far as I can tell, all we can do is make changes and decisions on a personal level: try to see the truth beneath the hype and balance our high moral standards with the practicality of living, day to day, in modern society. If enough individuals change the way they live their lives then governments will be forced to change their attitudes too but these changes have to be ‘doable’, practical and understandable for a vast number of people if any of this is to lead to sustained change.

To this end I would appreciate it if you would perhaps put together some information which I can post on my site about other ways to combat cancer. Education is the key to changing attitudes and my site does get a very large number of visitors. Every little helps and vast deserts are made of many little grains of sand.

Thank you again,
Sarah
www.casadelsole.co.uk

For information on cancer treatments that do not involve chemicals, drugs or surgery you might be interested in the following resources:

What Doctors Don’t Tell You (WDDTY) http://www.wddty.co.uk/cms/content.asp?pageid=factsheets-cancer

and

Definitive Guide to Cancer by W. John Diamond, M.D. and W. Lee Cowden, M.D., with Burton Goldberg
(Tiburon: Future Medicine Publishing, 1997. Hardcover, 1051 pages with references, ISBN: 1887299017)

Thank you all again.

Every year we look for a charitable cause to support. If you know of a particular good cause then please let us know.