Memoir
Grace, Grit and Gratitude….A Memoir: The untold story.
Scroll page for reviews and excepts from Grace’s Memoirs.
‘To a floating lantern I push it adrift” ………Hashimoto Takato
Dont miss this incredible read about Grace’s amazing life journey.
Grace, Grit and Gratitude is also available from Brumbies books and all of their distribution outlets
http://brumbybooks.com.au/downloads/newsletters/196_Nov_-_Dec_08_Newsletter_email.pdf
Various comments:
“A Compelling read.” “An Australian story of a woman’s courage.” “An engaging book in a deep way - not just interesting. I could not put it down.” “A great read about overcoming adversity without bitterness - inspiring!”
“I came away feeling that I had lived some of your life and there were parallels with my own. This book is a healing classic - a must read for anyone, but especially those interested in personal and spiritual development.”
From Dawn
If your book becomes a movie,
there won’t be a dry eye in the house!
So many times I cried!
So many times I laughed!
So many places I related too!
So much courage!
So many wonderful words of wisdom.
I related so well to your beautiful poem
‘Women of Silence’.
What ever your beliefs -
this is a great thought!
‘God polishes his jewels with the ‘diamond dust of adversity’!
You must be his most precious diamond!
Amazing how people come into our lives when needed.
I feel your story will help other people I know and would like
another copy of your book for my friend in Melbourne.
My copy is going to be ‘on loan’ for a while!
with many thanks for sharing your life!
An Overview of Grace, Grit and Gratitude: In 1975, Grace Gawler had a promising future. A brilliant young vet nurse planning to study veterinary medicine, she received a lucrative modelling offer, which would have paid her university fees. Concurrently, her boyfriend lost his leg to bone cancer.
Grace was at a vital choice point—either pursue glamorous, well-paid modelling work, while studying to become a vet, or support her boyfriend through his dying months. The latter meant foregoing her personal and financial independence—and lifelong dreams of becoming a vet.
Grace- Geelong 1973 - First modelling pic.
Grace chose to support Ian. Believing that his cancer was curable, she directed her passion into his healing, dedicating 18-hour days—focussing on juicing, massages, and pain management, whilst researching every cure imaginable. With just a few weeks to live—Ian proposed. Grace accepted, taking him to the Philippines for a healing honeymoon, the beginning of a long road to recovery.
Ian weighing 40 kg. Taken by me on our healing honeymoon March 1976.
He survived and together they established the Gawler Foundation, helping thousands of cancer patients gain hope and lead better lives. Now a mother of four and with Ian in remission, Grace developed her own methods for helping women with breast cancer and authored her first book, Women of Silence, in 1994. Life was good.
Disaster struck in 1997; Ian left the family, then her own major health crisis began. Soon the healer of thousands was struggling for her own life. For nine years, she battled on with little support. Horrendously ill, she faced death many times. A beautiful woman, her shining light was almost extinguished.
Grace October 2002: ileostomy & partial colon removal. Lucky to survive-weighing 42kg.
With amazing tenacity, drive, and passion, Grace survived. Near-death experiences have enhanced her passion for living, which bursts through in this book; her enthusiasm for life is contagious. Her only struggle is to contain the adjectives she uses.
Grace X-ray - Jan 2003-finds a successful solution in Rotterdam. A “first” bionic surgical procedure that restored function to her colon.
Now an international wellness leader, this modern day heroine inspires all with her story of Grace, Grit and Gratitude.
Enquiries Contact: grace@gawlersupport.com
Reviews
As a Johns Hopkins preventive medicine-trained physician, who developed the first wellness centre in the US I am very aware of the need for balance around health issues. Grace Gawler’s memoirs, Grace, Grit, and Gratitude, apart from being an inspiring and gripping story, alerts the reader to a whole host of assumptions that are prevalent regarding cancer healing. It is a vital exploration into what really heals. The book is aptly named!
Knowing Grace personally, I can say that I’ve never seen anyone with more passion for speaking her truth, looking at herself, grit, shadow, and all—sometimes even with a magnifying mirror—and able to write it all down in an easy-to-read style. She takes you along on her healing adventures like you’re sitting next to her (not that much of it was done sitting down). This incredible life story reads like an adventure tale, with villains, heroes, and all sorts of characters in between. Her gracious manner of dealing with adversity, and her expressions of gratitude, where I would be hard- pressed to feel any at all, are truly an inspiration. John W. Travis, MD, MPH, co-author, Wellness Workbook
Book Review of Grace, Grit and Gratitude – Grace Gawler - By Eve Hillary Grace Gawler’s memoirs, Grace, Grit and Gratitude kept me reading well into the night. The book is written in an easy style that rewards the reader with insights into Grace as a woman, mother, wife, carer, healer and pioneer of the original supportive care movement for cancer patients in Australia.
A uniquely Australian story, Grace brings alive the 1950’s Australia of her childhood. Her love of animals drew her into vet nursing. She teams up with a young vet and they set up a seemingly idyllic Victorian country vet practise. Almost immediately after their romance develops he is diagnosed with a usually fatal type of cancer. Their relationship unfolds in the shadow of his illness. Meanwhile Grace has grown into a beauty and comes to the attention of a modelling agency. She forgoes lucrative modelling opportunities in order to remain her boyfriend’s full time carer and they marry doctors give him only a few weeks to live. Later their marriage becomes the fertile ground from which Grace discovers the depth of her ability to love and to heal. In time, he becomes well again and for a while, they flourish and are further blessed with four children. Their journey into his healing and their joint establishment of the Gawler Foundation is alone worth reading. But what was originally a lifeline for Ian comes at a price for Grace.
When Ian leaves the marriage, Grace descends into her own life-and-death battle with a life-threatening condition and near destitution. Alone, she undergoes over sixteen surgeries while struggling with the day to day challenges of being a single parent to four children. Her ordeal imposes many losses including her position at the Gawler Foundation. Few would have survived her hardships but Grace always drew on a mysterious hidden reserve - the same one she used to heal others.
The rest of the book shows how Grace healed herself and reclaimed her identity. It reveals, perhaps for the first time, her unique contributions to the Gawler Foundation - and how she has subsequently forged her own solo career in supportive cancer care as a healer and author of self-help books for cancer sufferers. Perhaps her biggest achievement is founding cancer support in Australia. Many health professionals are involved with cancer sufferers but none offer ongoing support and the unique healing that Grace has pioneered over the past thirty years.
Not merely an autobiography of a unique Australian, this book offers useful information and deep insights for cancer sufferers, their carers, family and friends. It shows how seemingly insurmountable obstacles can be overcome and the miracle of healing is revealed in a way that people can experience it, reproduce it and derive inspiration from it.
I finished Grace’s book late on Saturday night; that night I dreamt about the country practise animal stories Grace had vividly told, and for a night I was in her life. I woke up just before her more demanding challenges came in the story. I think it’s fair to say that her book was engaging. Ernest Hemmingway said once: ‘Courage is Grace under pressure.’ Courageous is not too strong a word to describe this woman.
At the very least, this book is a good yarn with a ‘happy-ending’, as Grace is happily re-partnered. At most, it’s an awe-inspiring Australian story that will improve supportive cancer care in this country. It is certainly however, a story of redemption – well worth the read.
Eve Hillary BHSc. is a health practitioner, freelance medical writer and author on issues pertaining to health care, environmental health and social justice. She has authored two books, Health Betrayal and Children of a Toxic Harvest. She lives, writes and practices in NSW.
“It is said it takes a village to raise a child and may it be said it takes a village to assist a cancer patient to live. In this case – Ian’s ex-wife, Grace Gawler (a co-founder of the Centre at Yarra Valley), carried a huge load in Ian’s recovery. As a Psychologist, I am aware of the extraordinary, tiring and necessary role of the supportive carer. The role of the carer is major in the bid for a cancer patient’s healing and survival. Grace’s story needs to be told. She is a remarkable woman with a remarkable story.” Merran Brown, Psychologist, Queensland.
“I never met a patient who put such an effort in seeking appropriate care for her self.”
Dr. WR Schouten – Surgeon Erasmus University Hospital, Rotterdam – The Netherlands.
EXERPTS FROM Grace, Grit and Gratitude:
On meditation and diet:
PP 118,119 Grace, Grit and Gratitude – Grace Gawler
The healing mayhem gathered momentum when we began to combine the long sessions with Meares with the pedantic stringency of the diet. There were simply not enough hours in the day. Ian’s quest to find peace of mind, de-stress, and heal, saw us stressed out, trying too hard to de-stress. He had returned to the same old pattern of frenetic rushing from place to place, always late and behind schedule, but now it applied to our juices, supplements, and enemas. This had a backlash affect for me. While Ian learned to deflect his stress and stay cool and calm, I had to run faster and faster to accommodate his every need. Like a shock absorber in a car, I was running at high speed, absorbing his disowned stress and I was powerless to do anything about it. With the long hours of meditation, three hours with Meares’ group, and then two hours at home—I was really feeling the pressure. No matter how much I tried to support Ian, prolonged hours of meditation practise in combination with his already silent nature, proved to be a nightmare for me. I just hoped that he would have a breakthrough; pain reduction would be the barometer for success. If he achieved that, I would be delighted. Ian tried earnestly to withdraw into the world of meditation in the hope of alleviating both his pain and his cancer. I hoped he would seize the opportunity to unload his issues with Meares, but that did not eventuate. Apparently, personal past issues were not part of the protocol of his program. Rather than encourage Ian to express and discuss the issues surrounding his illness and amputation, the program was that meditation, that is the silence and the stillness, would dissolve all conflict, whatever its source, thus bringing about peace of mind. Weeks went by. The dietary machine pushed onwards while the meditation machine worked harder trying to find peace and pain relief. Both of us became extremely frustrated.
Ian grew jaded because he just could not make it with the meditation, finding it harder and harder as his pain increased and his energy waned. My experience was the frustration of running on a treadmill against time, spending my life attached to a juicing machine, excessive driving, living with the rigours of Ian’s unrelenting pain and sleep deprivation. However, despite all, strangely, I had a sixth sense that he would recover, but our positive signs began to look decidedly shaky as we struggled on through the weeks.
PP 124, 125 Grace, Grit and Gratitude
Meares exuded a presence meant to repel anyone who questioned his methods and so the consultation soon became highly uncomfortable. Ian then interjected,
“If I can just get on top of this pain I might better be able to meditate, but at the moment it is unrelenting, blocking everything I want to do including meditation”.
Meares looked annoyed, but responded calmly, “My position hasn’t changed. Just keep with the meditation”.
I became agitated and to Ian’s horror said,
“Well our position has changed and we want to try acupuncture!”
“Well”, he said in a cool tone, “You know acupuncture doesn’t work anyway, it’s all in the mind. There’s the door (indicating with a dismissive hand gesture) and if you choose to do other treatments, then don’t come back.”
I leapt to my feet.
“Acupuncture it is then, thank you, goodbye!” Ian was gob smacked and a bit embarrassed and remained seated for a time immersed in an awkward, pregnant silence, but he knew it needed to happen. I helped him up on his foot, gave him his crutches and we went through Meares’ door. Ian was reluctant to leave the sessions as he enjoyed the company of the other patients who, unknown to Meares, were already interfering with his research, since they had formed their own support group and were sharing information, alternative treatments, and contacts. Ian and I knew how bad it was ‘24-7’, and that he would soon die meditating if we did not do something else. That day marked the ending of our short and formal relationship with Ainslie Meares. I did not see him again, but Ian occasionally kept in touch with him The MJA article: Meares
PP 218 – 219 Grace, Grit and Gratitude Grace Gawler
An article that appeared in the Medical Journal of Australia saw our lives take a dramatic turn when a wave of media circus began due to an article titled ‘Regression of Osteogenic Sarcoma Associated with Intensive Meditation’ that appeared in The Medical Journal of Australia. (October 21, 1978) The report summarized our healing journey in a few paragraphs and came as a complete surprise to me. I had not known about the release and publication, and felt flabbergasted by its content. The article begins “The patient aged 25 underwent a mid thigh amputation
for osteogenic sarcoma, 11 months before he first saw me 21/2 years ago. He had visible bony lumps of about 2 cm in diameter growing from ribs, sternum and the crest of the ileum, and was coughing up small quantities of blood in which he said he could feel small spicules of bone… etc.” The article caused a media sensation, proposing a link between intensive meditation and remission of Ian’s cancer.
However, as I was an intimate part of Ian’s cancer journey from the beginning and his sole carer, I could not make any sense of Meares’ version of our story. Throughout Ian’s journey, I had documented and kept photographic records of his tumour development—records that I still possess and they did not correlate. The patient history was chronologically incorrect and contained other gross errors of fact. For example, Meares had mis-reported Ian’s surgical procedure; Ian had a full leg amputation through his hip, not ‘mid thigh’. As well, the patient (Ian’s) history; was chronologically incorrect. Trying to make some sense of the abstract, I thought that perhaps third party editing might have altered the way that the facts read. Inferring that meditation, in the way Meares was teaching it, had been the key component of Ian’s recovery, was unsupportable. Apart from Ian’s tuberculosis, there were at least thirty other treatments that we tried, including all the medical options available at various times. Like many people who recover and do many things towards regaining their health, it is complex and often impossible to sort out which treatments contributed most in a patient’s recovery. Public promotion of a ‘cancer cure’ story requires accountability and responsibility. Since others will try to emulate the experience, accuracy is paramount. I believe that meditation was helpful for Ian in a spiritual sense and support of that nature is important for all cancer patients. However, to say that his meditation practise was directly responsible for regression of his osteogenic sarcoma, was not supportable by my observations of Ian; an extrapolation not reflected in either his history or my day to day observations as his 24/7 carer.The ‘visible bony lumps’ that Meares reported, had not yet developed when he saw Ian for meditation sessions at the end of 1975–early 1976. In fact, they developed throughout 1976—long after sessions ceased. We had intentionally relaxed and changed our meditation style after we parted company with Meares, and over the years, we added and subtracted different techniques as appropriate to our needs. However, despite all that we were doing, the tumours on Ian’s chest wall grew substantially during 1977, before they began to dissolve during our visit to Findhorn that year. Ian’s coughing up of ‘bone spicules’ and blood started during a visit to India in 1977. As mentioned in my earlier chapters, Ian was with Meares for just six weeks and we parted company under duress due to Ian’s increasing pain and rapid deterioration.I knew that Ian had written to Meares as he moved towards remission in 1977, but somehow, perhaps unintentionally, he had confused our history in the published account. I wished that Meares had contacted me to check details, as I had kept an up to date healing journal. I believe that if Ian’s case had been scrutinised and reported in more detail, that Ian’s remission may have encouraged important research into the possible curative effect of BCG vaccine and bone cancer. Many years later, I found a substantial body of research that supports just that theory.My memories as the person who carried the daily loads during Ian’s illness were vivid, and I have no doubt that Ian’s history would have turned out differently, had we not moved on and incorporated other therapies other than meditation. I believe, as did doctors at the time, that his obituary, rather than an abstract about his recovery would have followed, had we not visited the Philippines. The supportive care, faith and love in action that we found there, inspired Ian—reconnecting him with his will to live, no doubt an element that helped him to survive. However, I also suspected that this complex story held a more simple solution, a microscopic ‘bug’ Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. This ‘bug’ may have been the real hero that went into battle and transformed solid cancerous bone into necrotic tissue.
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Women Of Silence
