Latest posts by Martin Moodie (see all)
Encouragement, cajoling and volumes of literature and music continue to fill my electronic and postal mailbag as I plough into my prolonged medical treatment programme.
As one would expect from this industry, plenty of it has been of the cheeky kind.
David Spillane of Travel Retail Sales picked up on Brian Collie’s urging that I should continue writing during my illness by adding his own postscript: “It’s great to see you’ve taken up Mr Collie’s advice… keep up the Blog… as someone who has played golf with you, it is true to say that writing is the only thing you’re good at!”
More seriously, Ingrid Tatham of Diageo Global Travel Retail Asia Pacific recommended what she considers a ‘mindset-changing’ book – ‘Anticancer, a new way of life’ by Dr David Servan-Screiber. Having read and been enthralled by the work, I concur wholeheartedly and would recommend it to anyone who is suffering from this disease or who wants to prevent it.
[Available from Amazon.com]
Dr Servan-Screiber, a prominent neuroscientist, argues that lifestyle – including environment, diet and psychology – plays just as important a role in beating cancer as do conventional treatments (chemotherapy and radioactivity), and offers an essential safeguard against developing cancer in the first place.
“We have to begin by detoxifying what we eat,” he argues, arguing the merits of ‘must have’ spices such as turmeric and several no-go areas (fortunately they do not include Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, though he does recommend Pinot Noir instead, which is a pretty attractive alternative.)
Thank you Ingrid.
From heavy duty to lighter material – notably ‘The Tommy Cooper Joke Book’ provided by Aldeasa’s Martin Petchey to get me through (as it has) the low moments of treatment. It’s so good in fact I can’t resist repeating a couple of gems from the maestro…
Patient: “Doctor, I have broken my arm in several places.”
Doctor: “Well you shouldn’t go to those places…”
Or this…
The doctor examined the patient and said: “You will live to be 70.” The patient replied: “I am 70!” The doctor said: “What did I tell you!!?”
All your messages and calls help. I remain as convinced that I will survive this challenge as I was the day I was diagnosed. The Moodie Report has many more chapters to write and I intend to be around writing many of them, albeit with a slightly amended philosophy to what had been a perhaps too all-consuming professional life.
In that regard I take my cue from a quote from the inspirational Dr Servan-Screiber, who writes: “Until we have brushed up against mortality, life seems boundless and we’d prefer to keep it that way. It seems that there will always be time to set out in search of happiness. When we put off till tomorrow the quest for the essential, we may find life slipping through our fingers without ever having savoured it.”