Thread 14: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

The Observer's original exposé: The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

The 13 Observer items currently available on their online 'The real Salt Path' page: The real Salt Path | The Observer

3 more from The Observer:

‘Hope is extinguished’: CBD patients respond to Salt Path...

The real Salt Path | The Observer (The Slow Newscast)

‘We thought: it can’t be the Salt Path couple – they’d ha...

Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement: Raynor Winn

Thread One ^www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5368194-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?^

Threads 2-11: Links all in the OP of Thread 12

Thread 12: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5384574-thread-12-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Thread 13: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5386458-thread-13-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

New posters joining us in the genuine spirit of our civil discourse welcome. It would be helpful to read at least some of the Observer items above before posting. There are currently 16 interesting items on The Observer website and linked to above.

To all - Please be extremely cautious when it comes to naming or implicating people and addresses not in the public eye or with no direct connection to the story, and around the understandable health speculations, especially where details are unclear or still emerging. Please do not engage with visitors who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail. Avoid @'ing and quoting them as - from experience - this will only encourage them back to the threads. We have done amazingly well together for thirteen very interesting, very serious and very silly threads so far. I can't be here as much as I'd like so all help with keeping our discussion walking along in our usual reasonable and respectful fashion is very welcome.

Are we all becoming Hyperglycaemic from all the fudge?
Have shares in Cadbury's gone up?
Can we remain cheerful in the face of such shameless glumwashing?
Will I need to fill up with much petrol this thread for the drive-by scoldings?
Will our Chloe H get exclusive interviews with the disgruntled peregrine, tortoise and Hollywood rabbits?
What has our Simon A got to say about this, preferably in verse?

Keep to the path. No saltiness. May the fudge be with you.

If i was in moths shoes I'd be pursuing that line if enquiry (even using my own funds if that sped things up), in case the alternative even more unusual diagnosis pointed to something with treatment and longer life expectancy.

But maybe they are completely confident that whatever moth has , they know how to manage it effectively and don't feel medical help would offer any benefit?

But it's moth in moths shoes and not me.

Interesting comment on FB about Lee Abbey near Lynton which featured in TSP as an expensive and unwelcoming Christian refuge;

Lee Abbey near Lynton also slated as expensive Christian retreat centre. When I stayed there I and asked about what had been written. The manager told me that Lee has a bursary and if they had called in and there was space they would have been offered a room, and food. If no room be offered facilities to shower and a meal.
The email.sent to Rae explaining this was not responded to.

TBF, there is a potential medical explanation for Moth being told incorrectly that he had only months to live (based on something he said in an interview), which would also explain why the allegedly normal DaTScan was ordered, but I don’t want to share it and give SW ideas! 😂

Cue Sally scouring more medical research papers, and scrutinising past interviews 😂

But the events of OWH are supposed to have happened before that, weren't they?
When did Sally do her CtC walk, was it last winter?

I doubt they’ve been paid hush money - more likely that they just want to keep a low profile and don’t fancy being doorstepped by journalists. Someone in my family has done some awful things, and I might speak about it to friends but if it came out in the National press I think I’d rather say nothing- there’s the chance that whatever you say to a journalist will be sensationalised/ taken out of context (have experienced this unfortunately) I imagine their wider family has discussed this and made a collective decision to keep quiet.- still family despite anything Raymoth have done.

I think we can be sure in the context that that is what the consultant was referring too.

The fictional consultant that talks like a game show host you mean? 🙄
He says what the author wants him to say - we are NOT talking about a real doctor's letter here...

Regarding the "walking in nature as cure for Moth" claims in the books, if this really were genuine, it strikes me as unusual that they've not actually done a huge amount of walking in the space of 12 years.

Between 2013-2015 they have walked the SWCP which, according to RW, took them just under 100 days in two legs.

2017 IG photos suggest they spent a couple of weeks in Snowdonia and Pennines but whether that was walking daily is unknown.

In 2019 (but likely 2017) they walked for about a week to 10 days in Iceland, and questionable how much of that involved off road vehicle.

In 2021 they spend 4 months walking, cycling and taxi-ing from Shiegra (nr Cape Wrath) to the South Coast.

So in 12 years they've walked (and cycled) no more than 8 months, unless they've been going off on other long distance walks that they haven't mentioned in interviews or written about, which seems unlikely. And if they have, when would they fit them in between writing books, doing PR, studying a degree and rewilding a farm?

The questions then are: why so little long distance walking if this supposedly helps allegviate Tim's symptoms? Why not live that lifestyle permanently after getting the resources from TSP success?

I’m a bit behind on the thread, sorry!

Might the phrase ‘sizeable brain mass’ have been a bit confusingly applied in the passage shown in the photo? I think one understanding of ‘sizeable brain mass’ might be a large tumour - but I wonder if what SW was meaning to say was that the consultant was saying there was a good level of brain mass (set in context where in (some?) neurodegenerative disorders there may be shrinkage of overall brain mass, shrinkage obviously being a negative thing), where the good (sizeable) level of brain mass (ie no shrinkage) is actually a positive, and confirms the more recent dat scan implication as ‘normal’. And both MRI and more recent day scan would then be in contrast with earlier dat scan that looked abnormal.

So - could be misuse / ambiguous use of medical terminology - either by the consultant (as reported by SW), or by SW, when she is trying to explain it. It may have been innocently done?

ps - just a lay-person, not a medic :)

Could it be that since the publication of TSP in 2018 (and part from during lockdown), SW has spent a lot more time
a) doing interviews with journalists about the books she has written
b) attending literary festivals
c) going on tour with Gigspanner and their merry band
than walking.

Why? Perhaps because the monetary rewards of writing bestsellers outweigh the alleged health benefits of walking!

To add to previous post- if they are a half decent family they will be concerned about the effect this is having on Raymoths children and won’t want to add fuel to the fire- I suspect the nephew impulsively made that post, then thought better of it when he considered the consequences. Unless you want to completely cut someone out of your life forever, you’re not going to go to the press with negative stories about them. The question I would be asking though is why no friends or family have come out to SUPPORT them in the media ( as far as I know).

Patients notoriously mishear & misunderstand what they are told by HCPs all the time. That's why it is so good nowadays that when someone is seen by a specialist that they are afterwards sent a copy of the letter to the GP so don't have to rely on memory.

Nope, this January. Unless she did another last year. She posted about it in March.

Indeed. And perhaps there was no miracle cure.

But only as long as the letter is written in good clear language that a non-medic can understand!

Surely you would make sure you understood before you made claims in a non fiction book

I think it could possibly 'mean' either a tumor or a re-growing of the brain - although that second option would be an even bigger miracle than the reversal of the Datscan results (which might not be so miraculous at all), and I think the phrase "the sizeable brain mass" points more to the first option.

Also, it might be unintentionally or intentionally ambiguous - Sally Walker is an unreliable narrator in many ways.

I posted this in answer to your original query, then went back to resume catching up and saw your (and others') responses, including yours ... I did wholeheartedly agree with your 'snarky review', the whole segment just totally missed the point!

Apropos of all the issues. The public went into WH Smith and paid their £10.99 in good faith that they were getting a true story. The WalkerWinns have put themselves out there all over the place for the past 7 years and presumably enjoyed the attention when it was agreeing with them. As illness is a big part of the story, they will have to put up with it being questioned; questioning which has been very fair so far. Those who bought the books and bought a ticket to the film can justifiably think they've been conned.

That's what I meant with 'last winter' because that's how she referred to it in the Muddy Stilettos interview, I just wasn't sure if it was the 2024 or 2025 part of it.

Anyway, an OWS synopsis describes that "Setbacks in his health have led him to believe his decline is now inevitable" and "Moth needing space to come to terms with what's happening to him", so it's not me who is claiming that he is seriously ill at that particular time, and certainly not able to attend film events - I just speculated on the details.
But then there is no hint of treatment in that synopsis, so I really might have gone off on a tangent here, although something must have happened that turned the 'inevitable decline' around for the umpteenth time.

But I still think my version of why she sets off on her own works better for retaining the TSP version of a loving caring wife who can't bear to be separated from her ill husband for even one minute 😇

It could be bringing in the cardiac problem that is mentioned in the Feb 2025 medical letter

I am wondering how somebody that says himself he cannot go to the loo unaided, managed when Sal went up North for her big walk up the hill, he must have been bursting. I know I am going to have to be a traitor and read the new book hopefully I can order from the Library and maybe I can offset it by donating to the PSP Charity as well.

I have tried hard to avoid speculating about what TWs diagnosis might actually be, whilst all the time stressing that a consultant neurologist will know a lot more about neurology than I, a non-neurologist, does!

However I think all gloves are off when it comes to talking about TWs health -- the Walkers have made millions out of doing so, so they have no grounds for complaint if other people do too.

And like other PPs above, the claims that walking offers a cure are what really troubles me and lands us firmly in snake-oil-salesman territory.

I've hesitated before telling the following, but here goes:

12 years ago I was diagnosed with a type of cancer that, whilst not rare, is often diagnosed late as symptoms are vague. Less than half the people diagnosed with this are still alive 5 years later, and another half of those survivors die before the 10 year mark. (Yes, I was shit scared!)

But my case is atypical. I had symptoms early - atypical - and they were acted on very quickly, meaning that the cancer was not advanced when found - atypical. And so I'm still alive, and even reasonably healthy!, which puts me in an overall minority for this cancer after all this time - so once again, atypical.

I am eternally grateful to the NHS and my consultant for saving my life.

But I could write a book about things I've done since my diagnosis. Learning to play an instrument cured me! Or maybe the cure was all the holidays, or losing some weight, or taking early retirement!

Of course the "cure" was none of those things. My case was atypical and I've just been very, very lucky. I'd never suggest otherwise. I don't even try to offer hope to other people with the same diagnosis as I had as my case is ATYPICAL (as I may have mentioned!) and it would be cruel to give false hope. Yes, I had cancer, and I have copies of the histology reports to prove it - but that's the way the story went for me, it's not going to extrapolate to other people unless they are also very, very lucky.

The Walkers, with TWs ATYPICAL presentation and putative diagnosis have done the opposite and I find that really immoral, if not downright cruel.

Thank you for sharing from your deeply personal perspective.

Glad you are still with us and able to pitch in on this whole debacle @indignantfrother . Luck is the element of all this that science can't account for and it sounds like you had it! But this is exactly why science deals in statistics and numbers, and those are pretty stark for CBD. So any major departure from those numbers, like Moth, is up for discussion. Even the neurologists are baffled by him, if that helps!

@indignantfrother, we eagerly await your book on the curative properties of learning a musical instrument. If you made it the bagpipes, you could also add a walking and nature angle, because you have to climb a small mountain outside your picturesque to be able to practice in peace…