So how does this fantastic event cross over into the murky realms of Dr Burzynski's work? Many others have covered the Burzynski debacle much better than I would ever be able to do. If you do want to know more about it, I recommend starting at Josephine Jones' blog, as she has a pretty extensive list of her own blogposts, along with those written by many others in the skeptical community.
The event is being held in memory of Kuly Ral, who died of a brain tumour. I know very, very little of this chap, except for the information given on the Street Spice website:
"Kuly Ral made up one third of super Urban-Bhangra group RDB when his devoted family and Three Records label colleagues discovered that he had a terminal brain tumour. Although Kuly sought to get treatment in America for this, it was not to be:"
It's a very sad fact that my heart sinks every time I read or hear the words "treatment in America" for cancer. I can't help but dread that it means Burzynski's clinic, and with a bit of digging, it seems that in this case it was indeed Burzynski's clinic that Kuly was receiving treatment from when he died. I know nothing of the circumstances of his treatment, or how he died, but given that Burzynski supporters have been known to use the names of dead patients as testimonials for successful cancer treatment, showing no respect whatsoever to the deceased or their loved ones, I'm frankly amazed that Burzynski and his cronies aren't shouting from the rooftops about how they were treating such a high profile Bhangra personality. (In the past I have emailled the Burzynski Patients Group to ask if they were going to take down the name of a patient who had been dead for months. Unsurprisingly, I received no reply.)
I'm making no judgement here on anyone who would choose to go to Burzynski. I'm also still really happy to be going to any supporting the event, as it's raising money for Brain Tumour UK rather than for Burzynski himself. The person who I judge the most in this situation is Burzynski himself, who seems rather happy to be making his millions providing unproven treatments, deceiving patients, making shoddy movies, and claiming an FDA conspiracy, when he could quite easily silence his critics-and the FDA- by simply publishing the results of his "clinical trials". If he spent half the time he spends on shameless self-promotion by sitting at his desk and actually writing up some results, then at least he could back up all of his miraculous claims, and all of us who are critical of him would have to sit down, shut up, and happily accept that there is a cure for cancer on the market.
So here is my own tiny little memorial to Kuly Ral. It takes the shape of a simple plea, and goes thus:
"Dear Dr Burzynski,
Please publish the results of your trials.
Its the least you could do"
