Margaret Gray
is determined to defeat her brain tumour

Use button CHINA on top navigation bar for full report on visit to Guangzhou 29 August to 8 September
Go to NEWS for more recent happenings.

Here also is a link to our daughter Liz's website - or start with a poetry sample or a noble tale.

Here is Margaret with Professor Zhang Bei, Vice Chairman, Cancer Centre, Institute for Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine
Sun Yat Sen University, Guangzhou, China, at the Marigold Restaurant, Sydney, 2 July 2000.

a new welcoming message to this web site, by Margaret's husband, Dennis Argall, written 27 August.

There are links in this text to other pages, to follow details of the history. Use the BACK button to return to this page. Or use the buttons at the top of the page to work through the site.

The two earlier 'welcome' pages can be found here and here.

Margaret was diagnosed on 28 April 2000 with the most aggressive kind of brain tumour, a glioblastoma multiforme grade 4, which can double in 10 or 11 days and the prognosis for which is very poor. An operation to remove as much as possible of the tumour was carried out at Canberra Hospital on 3 May. Margaret recovered strongly from the operation and came home on 13 May.

On 27 May we went to Sydney because radiotherapy resources are limited in Canberra, and because I had learned of new drug treatments which seemed available in Sydney but had not been mentioned in Canberra. Radiotherapy treatment began quickly, and continued to 18 July. We discussed options for conventional medical chemical treatments with a neurooncologist on 25 June, but came away somewhat disappointed.

We had had support from a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine here in Canberra at the time of the operation, and had gone to Sydney with her prescription for an anti-tumor herbal mix for which Shanghai University reported good results for glioma, and another script for strengthening the immune system.

By happenstance, or very providentially, we took this script for dispensing to a Sydney Chinese traditional medical practitioner Robert Yang, who has pursued Margaret's health interests vigorously, and obtained a consultation for Margaret with a visiting Chinese professor on 2 July, who uses integrated Chinese traditional and Western medicine in a cancer centre at the Sun Yat Sen University in Guangzhou. Margaret began concurrent anti-tumor herbal treatment on 2 July while radiotherapy continued. The herbal treatment continued and we stayed in Sydney to maximise calm and so that Margaret could see Robert Yang twice a week for adjustment of the herbal treatment. We became close friends of Robert's family.

We returned to Canberra on 25 August after a round of appointments and on 29 August, four months after diagnosis, we go to Guangzhou for a week for treatment organised by Professor Zhang with Robert as intermediary.

The progress so far has been made possible by Margaret's strength and quiet determination. It has been made immensely easier by the support of many friends. When you have troubles like this you find you can go through the address book and retrieve friendships that went rusty or went away, to mutual reward. And we are back in touch with my son, Margaret's stepson, Simon, living in Sydney, from whom we have been out of touch for some years. Our daughters at home, Liz and Cat have done wonderfully well, rising to the challenge of mutual support very well indeed and with few scratches to show. We have been very glad to come home to this house, conscious that it is running as they have it running, and that we have a new kind of home management relationship to work out.

Here is Margaret with our Sydney Chinese doctor, Robert Yang...

and a picture Robert took of Margaret and Dennis with Robert's wife Lin Li and sons Tianji and William (Tianqi), at their home in Chatswood, Sydney. Lin Li massaged Margaret's neck and shoulders regularly during July and August, providing great relief from pain. Note the loss of hair from the target areas of radiotherapy.