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Isla Bourke
OBITUARY
Obituary
Isla Bourke Founder member of Bristol Survey Support Group, who challenged findings of the 1990 “Bristol Study” and whose campaign vindicated the Bristol Cancer Help Centre, UK. Born Aug 9, 1933, in Devonshire, UK; died Feb 6, 2004, in London, UK, aged 70 years.
very year, thousands of women develop breast cancer, and their numbers are increasing. So why was Isla Bourke, a BBC news typist who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1986, so special? Bourke underwent a lumpectomy and radiotherapy for her cancer at the Middlesex Hospital, UK, and in addition, attended the Bristol Cancer Help Centre. The centre provided complementary therapies, such as counselling, art therapy, and dietary advice, for people with cancer. Bourke responded well to treatment, and made a full recovery by 1987. In September, 1990, The Lancet published a study comparing the survival of women with breast cancer who attended the Bristol Cancer Help Centre in addition to receiving standard treatment with those who received only regular therapy. The results seemed to show that the women who had received the complementary therapies did worse than the comparison group. The story made headline news, of which Bourke, working in the BBC newsroom, was well aware. Bourke was suspicious of the findings, and contacted other women who had taken part in the study. They agreed that the results did not add up and decided to challenge the researchers and the cancer charities who had sponsored the work. Their views coincided with those of many doctors and scientists who wrote to The Lancet and pointed out flaws in the study. Bourke, together with the other former patients, formed the Bristol Survey Support Group, and campaigned vigorously. She took part in a television film for Channel 4 (Cancer Positive) that challenged the findings of the “Bristol study”, and wrote many letters—one of which was eventually published in The Lancet. The group’s campaign was finally vindicated by a report in 1994 by the UK Charity Commission that upheld their complaint about the way in which cancer charities (Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research Campaign) had publicised the study without checking that the
E
Heather Goodare e-mail: [email protected]
results were sound. From that time, the Bristol Centre, which had suffered from the adverse publicity, began to recover its former good name. As Bourke said at the time in an interview in The Guardian, “It made me think not only of the women in the survey who had been betrayed, but of the women who had just been to Bristol. Maybe they had a partner who would turn to them and say, there, I told you it was rubbish. And what of the women who would never now come?” The campaign was the first time that patients challenged the results of a study in which they had taken part, and was a milestone in medical history. It also marked the beginning of a new awareness among medical researchers that patients’ views on research needed to be considered, and, furthermore, that their input could be valuable. Bourke was intelligent, but there was no opportunity for her to receive a university education. She lived an unconventional life, working for many years abroad for Club Med, before finally finding a home working for the BBC. Bourke was a great supporter of good causes, among them, the Rudolph Steiner movement. She also instigated successful luncheon clubs at local churches for homeless and needy people. She served for a time as a patients’ representative on the board of the Bristol Cancer Help Centre. Bourke was wonderfully eccentric, and genuinely did good without being a “do-gooder”. She was not afraid of ruffling feathers when they needed to be ruffled. She will be sadly missed, especially by the members of the Bristol Survey Support Group, for whom she continued to organise yearly reunions even during her final illness. Bourke died not of secondary breast cancer, but of primary lung cancer. Since she had smoked for only a brief period a long time ago, she suspected that it might have been triggered by radiotherapy damage to her lung at the time of her original treatment. Bourke is survived by her sister, Daphne Earl, and a nephew.
THE LANCET • Vol 363 • March 6, 2004 • www.thelancet.com
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet.
825
Obituary
Isla Bourke Founder member of Bristol Survey Support Group, who challenged findings of the 1990 “Bristol Study” and whose campaign vindicated the Bristol Cancer Help Centre, UK. Born Aug 9, 1933, in Devonshire, UK; died Feb 6, 2004, in London, UK, aged 70 years.
very year, thousands of women develop breast cancer, and their numbers are increasing. So why was Isla Bourke, a BBC news typist who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1986, so special? Bourke underwent a lumpectomy and radiotherapy for her cancer at the Middlesex Hospital, UK, and in addition, attended the Bristol Cancer Help Centre. The centre provided complementary therapies, such as counselling, art therapy, and dietary advice, for people with cancer. Bourke responded well to treatment, and made a full recovery by 1987. In September, 1990, The Lancet published a study comparing the survival of women with breast cancer who attended the Bristol Cancer Help Centre in addition to receiving standard treatment with those who received only regular therapy. The results seemed to show that the women who had received the complementary therapies did worse than the comparison group. The story made headline news, of which Bourke, working in the BBC newsroom, was well aware. Bourke was suspicious of the findings, and contacted other women who had taken part in the study. They agreed that the results did not add up and decided to challenge the researchers and the cancer charities who had sponsored the work. Their views coincided with those of many doctors and scientists who wrote to The Lancet and pointed out flaws in the study. Bourke, together with the other former patients, formed the Bristol Survey Support Group, and campaigned vigorously. She took part in a television film for Channel 4 (Cancer Positive) that challenged the findings of the “Bristol study”, and wrote many letters—one of which was eventually published in The Lancet. The group’s campaign was finally vindicated by a report in 1994 by the UK Charity Commission that upheld their complaint about the way in which cancer charities (Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research Campaign) had publicised the study without checking that the
E
Heather Goodare e-mail: [email protected]
results were sound. From that time, the Bristol Centre, which had suffered from the adverse publicity, began to recover its former good name. As Bourke said at the time in an interview in The Guardian, “It made me think not only of the women in the survey who had been betrayed, but of the women who had just been to Bristol. Maybe they had a partner who would turn to them and say, there, I told you it was rubbish. And what of the women who would never now come?” The campaign was the first time that patients challenged the results of a study in which they had taken part, and was a milestone in medical history. It also marked the beginning of a new awareness among medical researchers that patients’ views on research needed to be considered, and, furthermore, that their input could be valuable. Bourke was intelligent, but there was no opportunity for her to receive a university education. She lived an unconventional life, working for many years abroad for Club Med, before finally finding a home working for the BBC. Bourke was a great supporter of good causes, among them, the Rudolph Steiner movement. She also instigated successful luncheon clubs at local churches for homeless and needy people. She served for a time as a patients’ representative on the board of the Bristol Cancer Help Centre. Bourke was wonderfully eccentric, and genuinely did good without being a “do-gooder”. She was not afraid of ruffling feathers when they needed to be ruffled. She will be sadly missed, especially by the members of the Bristol Survey Support Group, for whom she continued to organise yearly reunions even during her final illness. Bourke died not of secondary breast cancer, but of primary lung cancer. Since she had smoked for only a brief period a long time ago, she suspected that it might have been triggered by radiotherapy damage to her lung at the time of her original treatment. Bourke is survived by her sister, Daphne Earl, and a nephew.
THE LANCET • Vol 363 • March 6, 2004 • www.thelancet.com
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet.
825