Australian supermodel and entrepreneur Elle Macpherson has shared she was diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago, and is currently in remission.
Macpherson, who granted an interview to Australian Women’s Weekly shared that she was diagnosed with HER2-positive receptive intraductal carcinoma seven years ago. While doctors advised her to undergo a mastectomy with radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and reconstruction of her breast, she chose to be “holistically treated” at a rented house in Arizona, for eight months under the guidance of her personal doctor. Macpherson is currently promoting her upcoming autobiography Elle: Life, Lessons and Learning To Trust Yourself.
She told Women’s Weekly: “Saying no to standard medical solutions was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But saying no to my own inner sense would have been even harder.” She told Women’s Weekly that she was forced to “dig deep in my inner sense to find a solution that worked for me… I realised I was going to need my own truth, my belief system to support me through it.”
She referred to the experience as a “wonderful exercise” in being true to herself and said, “Sometimes an authentic choice from the heart makes no sense to others.”
Macpherson said that her sons reactions were mixed. Cy, then 14, was afraid of chemo and never wanted his mother to undergo it. Meanwhile, then-19-year-old Flynn was uncomfortable with her choice. She said her former husband, Arki Busson, was “scared” and considered her choice “extreme” but supported her through it.
At the time Macpherson was dating disgraced anti-vaxxer Andrew Wakefield.
Breast cancer is a potentially fatal disease that affects 1 in 7 women and 1 in 550 men during a lifetime. Cancer Australia states that while alternative therapies from naturopaths and other specialists are often touted as ‘cancer cures’ they are unproven and not clinically tested. While patients might choose to use complementary therapies during their treatment, these therapies aim to enhance quality of life and improve mental wellbeing rather than rid the body of cancer.
As reported by The Guardian, Macpherson’s ex Andrew Wakefield was accused of prompting significant drops in vaccination rates in the UK and Ireland when he published a paper in Lancet in 1998, since retracted by the medical journal, that claimed there was a link between a vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella with autism. His medical license has been revoked.
Help Is Available: For support resources in your state, contact the national body, Cancer Council Australia, on 13 11 20.
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