The Gawler Foundation has welcomed the Brumby Government’s pledge to invest $150 million to increase cancer survival rates in Victoria.
Karin Knoester, Gawler Foundation CEO, believes it is important to address the initial causes of cancer as well as provide increased support and assistance for those dealing with cancer.
“Just as with heart disease and diabetes, cancer is affected by diet, exercise, stress and a person’s state of mind,” Ms Knoester said.
“Equally, it is important to address these issues in an integrative way when people are experiencing cancer.”
“The Gawler Foundation’s integrated approach to cancer management consciously addresses the whole person; the body, emotions, mind and spirit,” she said.
The integrated approach is complementary to any mainstream medical treatment.
It is interested in how our body is affected by our environmental and our emotional and mental state.
It is concerned with matters of the heart and spirit, knowing that issues that affect our sense of purpose and meaning in life can affect our health dramatically.
“The scientific evidence suggests that the approach used by The Gawler Foundation will almost always improve quality of life,” said Dr Ian Gawler OAM, Gawler Foundation founder and therapeutic director.
“On average, the integrative approach will have a significant impact on cancer survival times as well as leading regularly to cases of full recovery from cancer,” he said.
FACTS:
- Dr Ian Gawler OAM founded Australia’s first active cancer self-help group in 1981
based on his personal experiences. From these beginnings The Gawler Foundation
has grown into a world renowned and successful organisation helping people to heal
themselves.
- The Gawler Foundation has helped more than 10,000 people through its unique cancer
self help program. Nearly 7000 people have attended residential programs for cancer,
MS, health & wellbeing
- The Gawler Foundation is a non-profit, non-denominational organisation, registered in Victoria since 1983.
- The foundation’s national headquarters is set on 15 hectares of forest, amidst the remarkable peace and tranquillity of the Yarra Valley.

Open your mind to the endless possibilities of deep meditation with a practical and inspiring one day workshop in Caulfield on Saturday, May 24.
Presented by Dr Ian Gawler OAM, the workshop will focus on mindfulness-based stillness as the key to deepening your meditation. It is ideal for beginners and also for those who practice meditation regularly.
Dr Gawler is the founder and therapeutic director of The Gawler Foundation and has played a major part in popularising meditation and other mind-body medicine techniques in the western world. He is a pioneer in the therapeutic application of meditation and mind-body medicine.
He has been teaching the art of meditation for over 25 years and his renowned public lectures and workshops have been attended by over 70,000 people.
The Meditation Day will have an emphasis on mindfulness-based stillness and will assist in developing self-awareness and wellbeing; physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Learn to meditate as a means to:
• Achieve greater efficiency and performance and be more at peace
• Dissolve every day tension and stress
• Develop inner peace and natural, good health
• Discover how the mind activates the immune system
• Find a greater clarity and confidence and develop a gentle good humour
• Develop self-awareness and wellbeing – physically, emotionally and spiritually
This is a rare opportunity to learn inspiring and practical meditation techniques from one of Australia’s most respected practitioners.
It will be held at The Glen Eira Centre, corner Glen Eira & Hawthorn Roads, Caulfield, from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, May 24.
Cost is $120, $108 for members of The Gawler Foundation or $90 concession. This includes the one day workshop, morning tea and light vegetarian lunch.
Dr Ian Gawler’s books, tapes and CD’s will be available for purchase during the day and be sure to bring paper and pen if you wish to take notes during the workshop.
For enquiries, phone (03) 5967 1730, email info@gawler.org or visit the website: www.gawler.org

SURVIVING CANCER
public lecture & book launch
Featuring Professor Chris O’Brien & Dr Ian Gawler OAM

What do we learn from people who survive cancer against the odds?
Are they just lucky?
Or are they doing something that we need to learn & act on?
Eminent doctors like Oncologist Professor Chris O’Brien from RPA Sydney believe there is a new way of treating cancer that offers fresh hope to each of the 90,000 Australians who will be diagnosed with cancer this year.
The new book ‘Surviving Cancer’ puts a human face to this new approach.
These unique and uplifting stories are not only inspirational, they all come from people who have adopted an integrative approach to their cancer treatment through the life changing programs offered by The Gawler Foundation.
To launch the book, Dr Ian Gawler will combine with Prof. Chris O’Brien to present a public lecture on the integrative approach to treating cancer.
‘Surviving Cancer’ editor Paul Kraus, himself a long term survivor of mesothelioma will speak on the night, along with some of those who have told their story in this wonderful new book.
Prof. Chris O’Brien is an Oncologist and former Director of the Sydney Cancer Centre at the Royal Prince Alfred (RPA). He was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour in November 2006 and as a regular on the Nine Network’s hospital show ‘RPA’, the story of his own diagnosis was shown to millions across Australia.
Dr Ian Gawler is one of Australia’s best known long term cancer survivors. Diagnosed with a very difficult bone cancer, he had his leg amputated in 1975.
He then developed an innovative approach to treating cancer, drawing upon good nutrition, a positive state of mind, meditation and support.
This has become known and widely accepted as the ‘Integrative Approach’, a method which complements and enhances standard medical cancer care.
Dr Gawler is the Founder and Therapeutic Director of The Gawler Foundation, a charitable organisation dedicated to sharing these principles with everyone affected by cancer.
This is a rare opportunity to listen to those who have survived, along with highly regarded experts as they speak of their own experiences in dealing with cancer and the ‘Integrative Approach’.