1: Back to Root with Dee Mani & Kate Shemirani - Episode 11: Back to Root with Dee Mani & Kate Shemirani - Episode 1
UK Health Radio Podcast
Breast cancer survivors Dee Mani and Kate Shemirani talk with Dr Patrick Vickers about the history and principles of the Gerson Therapy and its controversial place in cancer care. The conversation blends personal stories, nutritional strategies and criticism of mainstream treatment to raise questions about choice and informed consent.
44:41•29 Oct 2026
Back to Root: Cancer, Gerson Therapy and the Fight for True Informed Consent
Episode Overview
- Dee Mani and Kate Shemirani share that they chose surgery but refused chemotherapy and radiotherapy for their breast cancers.
- Max Gerson’s therapy is presented as a multi-pronged regime centred on intensive juicing, plant-based diet, flax oil and coffee enemas to restore metabolism and gut health.
- Historical accounts describe Max Gerson curing tuberculosis and advanced cancer, followed by censorship, loss of licence and exclusion from mainstream medicine.
- Kate emphasises the importance of true informed consent and highlights how diet, environment and hospital food may undermine recovery.
- Dr Patrick Vickers explains that modern toxicity means patients often need additional supportive therapies alongside the original Gerson protocol.
“We’re not looking at healthcare. We’re looking at wealth care. Cancer itself generates billions of dollars. You are the cash cow.”
This episode dives deep into the challenges and triumphs of alternative cancer care and the controversial history of the Gerson Therapy. Back to Root is hosted by breast cancer survivors Dee Mani and Kate Shemirani, both of whom chose surgery but declined chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and now share why conversations about cancer and treatment choices feel so urgent to them.
You’ll hear Kate describe her experience of following the full Gerson protocol for two years – “13 juices a day, five coffee enemas a day, the diet” – and crediting this regime with her ongoing health. Dee adds her own story of juicing, plant-based eating and using cannabis oil and raw cannabis leaves, raising questions about why certain plant-based options are suppressed while pharmaceutical approaches are promoted. Their guest, chiropractor Dr Patrick Vickers, brings detailed historical context.
He recounts studying directly with Max Gerson’s daughter Charlotte, living in her home and poring over “all her father’s handwritten files of all his patients from 1910 until 1959”, plus letters from Nobel Prize winner Albert Schweitzer, who called Gerson “the greatest genius in medical history”. Vickers outlines how Gerson moved from a migraine diet to treating tuberculosis and then cancer, and how his success led to intense censorship, licence loss and professional isolation.
The conversation walks through the core pillars of the therapy: around 20 pounds of organic produce a day as juices, flax oil, and coffee enemas, all aimed at restoring metabolism and healing the gut. Vickers argues that modern toxicity means today’s patients often need additional tools such as oxygen therapies alongside the original protocol.
The tone is frank, sometimes fiery and often darkly humorous, as Kate quips about hospital food, “I don’t know why they just don’t hold you down and shoot you.” If you’re curious about natural approaches to serious illness, sceptical of mainstream cancer care, or simply want to hear three people challenge the idea of “wealth care” versus healthcare, this episode might get you thinking: what would true informed consent look like for you?
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