Talking ‘bout a generation

There was a palpable sense of excitement when Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who, took to the conference stage – although he was wearing a suit and clutching a speech, not a guitar.

‘There’s no such thing as alternative or CAM, there is just good medicine’, he said. ‘All these therapies should just be a tool in the toolbox of a good healer.’

Mr Daltrey is using his belief in integrated health to support the work of the Teenage Cancer Trust, a charity that provides specialist units within hospitals.

‘They are providing a positive environment for teenagers in the NHS,’ he said, and that improves outcomes for patients.

Speaking later, Mr Daltrey said survival rates in Teenager Cancer Trust units were ‘in excess of 10%’ higher than in standard hospital wards, due to the combination of a better environment for young people and staff who are focused on teenage cancers – which can be some of the most aggressive forms of the disease.

The audience heard the senior nurse at the newly opened ward at the University Hospital in Wales, Laura Clark, told Mr Daltrey she had doubted the facilities would make a much difference – surely what mattered was the staff?

But now she was ‘a convert’ – when the unit opened, she was ‘ecstatic and dancing round the jukebox’ at the reaction of the patients.

‘It’s akin to a cross between a really good hotel and a hospital unit, with games rooms, MTV and computers,’ Mr Daltrey explained after his presentation. ‘They can cook for themselves and do all the things teens like to do.’

Mr Daltrey’s GP, Dr Adrian Whiteson, was one of the founders of the charity. It has set up nine units to date, with six more in the planning stages. 

Speaking after his session, Mr Daltrey said: ‘It’s important for teenagers to mix with each other but before the Teenage Cancer Trust, they weren’t recognised by the NHS as a group. But they have very specific needs. It’s a very painful period of your life, and they get the most aggressive and rarest forms of cancer.

‘Anyone who has had a teenager will know it’s hard to get them to talk to you at any time. If you tell a teenager they have cancer, they go into themselves, which is not conducive to good health. We give them the opportunity to be together and to help each other.’

During his conference session, Mr Daltrey explained that it was when his young son Jamie became ill that he was drawn to complementary medicine. Jamie had a severe gastro-intestinal problem and was losing weight, fast: ‘He looked like an emaciated sparrow’. Despite extensive tests, hospital doctors could not pinpoint the cause without carrying out further unpleasant and invasive investigations. ‘They gave him back to us and said, we can’t find anything wrong.’

Mr Daltrey looked in the Yellow Pages and found a homeopath, Peter Hudson. Jamie improved and was able to keep food down – although the problem recurred, each time the powders made Jamie better. Mr Hudson also helped other friends of the singer.

He appealed to doctors ‘to keep your minds open and your ears open’ to the benefits of integrating conventional and complementary medicine.