Some interesting and varied comments following that:
An old friend of mine died horribly of Cortico Basel Degeneration. It was slow and agonising and eventually she was almost completely paralysed. How she would have felt, being told that she could "walk it off" feels like a slap in the face to me, let alone how cruel and heartless it would be to her. The only possible good outcome is that more people will become aware of this terrible disease.
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Yes sadly a dear friend of mine died of CBD and I felt exactly the same when I read the book.
The heart-warming story of a man who recovered from a terminal illness by going camping in the pissing rain with his embezzler wife
..It very much WAS an open secret. I know many fellow writers who were openly suspicious of it, and it was very much known. Regarding publishers fact checking, while not a legal requirement, it certainly should be done. There is also a conversation to be had about the preference for middle / upper class stories. Had this been a story about TRUE homelessness, it wouldn't have sold.
First draft title: 'The Sodium Chloride Way'.
Second draft: 'The Condiment Con'
Sequel title: 'On the Gravy Train'.
I am about to publish a memoir about my life affirming walk to Aldi last Wednesday. It is called "The Shite Path". When I got home I never had cancer.
I saw the book when it was released and toyed with buying it, but I am pretty “I did this and changed my life” fatigued to be honest, so didn’t buy it. Then when I heard that they had “cured” his brain condition with the walk, I then just rolled my eyes. I am not surprised that it took the world by storm though. We are so down trodden at the moment with the state of the world and this “showed” that paring back, getting back to nature, etc is an option. I guess people needed that hope in some way. But I do think there were signs a lot of it was fabricated (not least Tim’s/Moth's illness). They would have felt emboldened by the NDA that the people she stole money from had to sign. Of course, they probably didn’t even consider someone might investigate them, finding out they not only didn’t lose their house through a bad business investment, but also own a chunk of land in France, meaning they weren’t as destitute as they made out. The Observer article cited what I would consider to be irrefutable proof - the threat of court for embezzlement, the borrowing of money to pay for the embezzled money, the death of the person she borrowed money from and the subsequent owners of the business who forced the repayment forcing them out of their home, the interview with the people who bought the house and could confirm endless letters of demand addressed to the Walkers, the french land in their names. I honestly don’t think there is anything “alleged” about it. This all leaves a very bad tasted in people’s mouths and not only that, it will make people question similar books to come because we will be asking ourselves, is this REALLY true.
Posh con woman, reminds me of a woman that got an old fella walking miles in their mansion garden during a pandemic. Glad I never bought either book! total rubbish, grifting rich folk giving false hope to are very ill or the public who think money is going to a good cause. Awful people & greedy publishers not doing due diligence all out to line their pockets.
If someone is making money from a medical miracle story they are bound to be well dodgy.
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Certified red flag.
If this book gave even 1 person false hope in regard to a serious illness, it should be pulled from sale and the writer should be sued into Oblivion. Abhorrent.