Kim Tinkham was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer in February 2007, just two days before her fiftieth birthday. Rather than go the conventional route of mastectomy followed by chemo and/or radiation she chose to seek out an alternative way to heal her body. Her choice to search for an alternative coupled with a late night email landed her as a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show in March of 2007, where she stood her ground for her right to choose and shared with the audience that ‘you cannot make a decision based on fear’.
With hundreds of emails from people around the world who watched the show segment applauding her decision and spurring her on she spent the next four months seeking out answers from doctors and practitioners around the world. With her self imposed deadline of October fast approaching and no answer to the question “what causes cancer?” she finally found the research of Dr. Robert O. Young, a microbiologist in California. After communicating with Dr. Young via phone and email she made the decision to follow his protocol and three months later was pronounced cancer free.
Kim Tinkham died yesterday - from cancer. It's a sad but unfortunately predictable end for a woman who was persuaded to forgo real medical treatment in favour of pseudoscience.
The survival chances from stage III breast cancer treated with chemotherapy is reportedly a dismal 50%. When you effectively do nothing to treat cancer, the chances of survival drop closer to 0% (with the possible exception of a spontaneous remission).
There are calls to bombard Oprah with messages denouncing her promotion of The Secret and other nonsense that might have had some influence on the decisions made by Ms Tinkham.
I'm not sure such actions will serve any purpose. In 2009, after Newsweek condemned the quackery that makes regular appearances on Winfrey's show, she responded...
"I trust the viewers, and I know that they are smart and discerning enough to seek out medical opinions to determine what may be best for them."
Oprah is currently on a promotional tour in Australia. I understand
UPDATE: Kim Tinkham on Oprah. Oprah says she's happy the message of The Secret is reaching people but also, to be fair, she says Tinkham is irresponsible for ignoring medical science. Tinkham responds that she's following Winfrey's advice to make her own choices. From here it degrades into a battle of woos which Tinkham "won".
Note that Tinkham's claim that her miracle cure guru was a "real doctor" was wrong.
The video link was posted on Dr Robert Young's blog as part of his promotion of an alkaline diet miracle treatment for cancer. You'll find a testimonial from Tinkham there too, complete with an email address where you can "contact her".
The blog is replete with photos of a happy Kim Tinkham advising others to wish their cancer away like she did.
MORE:
Digital Journal summary of Kim Tinkham's cancer journey
Dr David Gorski expresses a view
