Currently on a media
tour to promote her memoir Elle, the supermodel spoke with the Australian Women’s Weekly about being diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago. Macpherson revealed she was diagnosed with intraductal carcinoma cancer and is now in clinical remission after undergoing a lumpectomy.
She could have stopped talking then but sadly, she didn’t.
Macpherson went on to say that, despite getting advice from 32 medical experts, she decided to follow “an intuitive, heart-led, holistic approach”, saying she made lifestyle changes, “prayed and meditated” and decided not to go for chemotherapy.
Because she is incredibly wealthy (and this is not a small detail in this whole story), her “holistic” cancer cure involved renting a place in Arizona where she spent eight months surrounded by a whole team, including a doctor of naturopathy, an osteopath and a holistic dentist. During that time, she said she dedicated “every single minute to healing myself”.
Must be nice.
Anyway. Did you know that Elle Macpherson dated Andrew Wakefield, the UK anti-vax doctor who was struck off after fraudulently claiming the MMR vaccine caused autism (which, to be super clear, it does not, please vaccinate your kids)?
Apologies, I digress.
What I really should be telling you is that, despite making it sound like she didn’t follow medical advice, she kind of did - I mean, she had surgery - a surgery that some experts state often ends up being enough to treat this type of cancer.
According to cancer experts who have since spoken out against Macpherson’s comments, chemotherapy is often not offered after the surgery for the cancer she described. Since she said she rejected that treatment, it is unclear exactly what kind of cancer she had, or what stage it was at. But this is also an important reminder that the advice and treatments that work for one type of cancer might not work for another.
What we are talking about here is a millionaire with access to the best healthcare money can buy telling vulnerable people they should consider ignoring medical advice and they’ll be fine because, look at her, she’s fine.
While it is true Elle Macpherson does not owe us any details of her diagnosis and is entitled to make her own choices, it is also true that her comments risk endangering the lives of other cancer patients.
When a celebrity reveals a cancer diagnosis, that has an impact on public health and what those celebrities say influences how the public acts.
Macpherson is a woman of huge influence. A lot of us grew up seeing her in magazines and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t recognise her name. That kind of familiarity leads to a feeling of trust. Combine that trust with our society’s misconceptions linking thinness and westernised beauty standards to health - a connection that does not actually have any basis to it - and what we have is a lot of people potentially paying more attention to Elle Macpherson than they should, and potentially being steered away from lifesaving medical treatment.
It is also relevant to mention that Macpherson, as well as promoting this memoir-slash-self-help-book of hers, owns a wellness company, and has been busy trying to convince people to buy her supplements. What a complete coincidence that she would then make comments shunning traditional medicine, right?
While alternative, holistic practices can be helpful, they should be done alongside traditional medicine as an add-on rather than a replacement for it. Drink all the green juice, do all the yoga - but not instead of following your doctor’s treatment plan.
I am genuinely glad Elle Macpherson is in remission. But just because “following her heart” happened to work for her as a treatment method, it does not mean it will work for someone else.
Macpherson’s comments not only endanger the lives of those yet to be diagnosed but also impact people who have gone through cancer treatment themselves.
It was heartbreaking to read Sarah Moller’s piece in the Sydney Morning Herald this week, talking about how Macpherson’s book made her feel guilty about her own breast cancer diagnosis, because it made her feel like it was caused by something she had brought on herself.
“In one chapter, she writes that she felt a need to get to the ‘root cause’ of her cancer, explaining that she believes the cancer ‘manifested’ in her body because of her ’emotional and spiritual state’. This, she says, informed her decisions about treatment: ‘It would be unwise to try and solve a largely emotional or spiritual problem in a purely physical way’,” Moller wrote.
“I bought the book with an open mind. I have no doubt that diet, exercise and a person’s state of mind can play a huge role in a person’s overall health. But the idea that my ‘emotional and spiritual state’ caused my cancer? I should have stopped reading then.”
Over the course of our lives, a lot of us will unfortunately sit in a doctor’s office and hear the worst of the “c” words. A lot of us will hold the hands of our dear friends and whānau as they go through their own cancer battles.
If that happens to you or anyone you know, don’t take medical advice from a supplement-selling supermodel. Please, listen to your doctors.
