Because cowards get cancer too..

C: because cowards get cancer too
John Diamond

This book was reviewed by Rachel, an Ovacome member, in the winter 1998 newsletter.

When John Diamond turned his weekly column for The Times into an account of his cancer journey, he was stunned by the response. He had expected 'a couple of anonymous letters telling me I wasn’t the first bastard to get cancer': instead, he got a giant postbag containing hundreds. The book contains a few of the columns and is a frank, up-front account of how he got through excruciating surgery and radiotherapy for cancer of the tongue.

Don’t think for one moment, though, that this is a depressing tale: it made me laugh rather than cry. There are terrific descriptions of people’s reactions to his cancer such as: 'People would say, in that reverential chapel-of-rest voice, How are you?’'

One of the reasons I liked John Diamond’s account was that his attitude to the disease in lots of ways mirrors my own. He despises all the battling and fighting cancer talk; he says this implies that only those who fight hard enough against the disease deserve to survive it. The message is, cut the crap; we have cancer, we don’t need a lecture on morals as well!
He is astonished that people are so ignorant about cancer. That vast postbag he received contained lots of letters from fanatics advocating weird and wonderful remedies. He quotes statistics: in 1930 only one person in five diagnosed with cancer survived five years; at the present time 50 per cent survive at least that long. He gives thanks for modern medical advances.

To those arguing against orthodox medicine he says: 'Where I stand on alternative medicine is roughly where the Pope stands on getting drunk on communion wine and pulling a couple of nuns.' Or another classic: 'No wonder the alternative quacks get away with their fairy dust treatments, you die just as quickly as with the real thing but you feel better about it.'

C is part of a new wave of cancer writing, breaking down taboos and dismissing much of the nonsense talked about the disease. Depending on where you’re coming from you’ll probably either love or hate it. Either way, don’t ignore it, or you’ll miss one of the most witty, readable books on the subject.