TERRY YANA - YOU ARE NOT ALONE NOW

[Paul Edwards]

www.yananow.org is an excellent prostate cancer support site which was established nearly 20 years ago by Terry Herbert and others.It is particularly valuable for its large collection of survivor stories.After a journey of nearly 18 years Terry Herbert is experiencing heavy effects of advanced cancer and in his most recent post he said: 

"So, that's it now. Chemotherapy is really my only choice now and I think I would rather just go quietly into the night. Lasting as long as my organs do - all blood results are now "normal" :-) We shall see what the good Dr Lim says this week.

 

If this is my last entry, it's been great knowing you all. Keep up the good fight!"

Terry - the internet is full of men that you've helped and we're all thinking of you.

[Guest]

Terry Herbert was there for me when I needed a kickstart with a personal phone call.

I have seen him help so many in the past with his personal knowledge, and especially with www.yananow.org and the wealth of knowledge available there.

Thinking good thoughts for him.

[Admin]

I devoured the stories on Terry's site five years ago trying to choose my own best treatment.

 

Terry has led a life that has been an inspiration to many, and a saviour for some.

 

We hope for the best for him in this coming time.

Jim

[Paul Edwards]

Sad to report that Terry died last night at the Caritas Christi Hospice in the Melbourne suburb of Kew.

 

We've lost a man who was an inspiration to so many.

[Paul Edwards]

The following is a post by Charles Clausen on the Prostate Problems Mailing List (PPML) following Terry Herbert's death.  The post by Charles includes some of Terry's favourite quotes about prostate cancer; these are worth sharing.

 

 

 

Dr. Willet Whitmore, described in a medical journal article as "the father of urologic oncology", was an early advocate of watchful waiting: http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/18/1348.long

 

He died of advanced prostate cancer in 1995.

 

Terry quoted Dr. Whitmore frequently on the PPML, but I have found the most complete rendering of these quotations (between asterisks below) on Tony Crispino's Healing Well PCa forum:

 

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Dr Willet Whitmore... was a renowned urologist whose name was applied to the Staging system in place before the current one. Here is a handful of his bon mots:

 

"The current state of prostate cancer may not be good medicine but it sure is good business."

 

"There are more people making a living from prostate cancer than there are dying from it."

 

"Let's try to replace heated opinion with cold facts."

 

"Is cure possible? Is cure necessary? Is cure possible only when it is not necessary?"

 

And my personal favourite:

 

"Growing old is invariably fatal while prostate cancer is only sometimes so."

 

Ironically Dr Whitmore was diagnosed with PCa, declined treatment, opting for Watchful Waiting and subsequently died. It is said that his last words were "Perhaps I waited too long."

 

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http://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=1951277&p=2

 

From the time he first began participating in online PCa forums, Terry was an advocate for watchful waiting, and in later years, of active surveillance and minimal treatment. I (and many others) used to feel that he was extreme in his views, but at the same time, I felt a strong empathy for his skepticism about the extent to which physicians and patients would jump so quickly into aggressive treatment for cancers that may have been indolent in nature.

 

I have admired his greatly affable nature, and his generous dedication to creating information resources for patients.

 

Terry's story on his Yananow website:  http://www.yananow.org/display_story.php?id=984

 

His Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/terry.herbert.37?fref=ts

 

Charles Clausen

[JimJimJimJim]

Final entry on Terry's page:

 

Sadly, we received the following message from Terry's wife, Anthea:

We have just returned from the Hospice where Ter passed away peacefully a few hours ago -- 8:30pm August 6. We had been with him all day and his breathing was very labored and we all knew that it would not be long before he left us but although we had been expecting it, it is still unbelievable. He was in a very caring atmosphere with a lovely nurse who had been looking after him for the past week but his condition deteriorated rapidly yesterday….We know that he is now at peace with no more suffering but it's still a huge burden to deal with. Many thanks for all the loving wishes you have sent us.