THE PLAGUE SPREADS

In 2014, a herbalist named Ian Pile told a woman with terminal colorectal cancer he could “cleanse her blood” with powerful herbs and led her to believe she would be cured within weeks. He gave the patient two tablets, one of which contained black salve, which caused pain and vomiting. Mr Pile, whose qualifications include a certificate of psychic and spiritual healing from the Unity College of Healing, resisted telling his patient what was in the pills he gave her. When she asked him to give her a receipt he said it would be illegal to do so. The patient died in August 2015.

Queensland man Bevan Potter narrowly avoided jail in 2015 after pleading guilty to 24 charges of importing or producing black salve. He made more than $100,000 profit from sales of the substance.

In 2016, Queensland woman Deidre Brophy was banned from making, supplying or selling black salve, and from claiming she could diagnose cancer with thermal imaging. Cancer Australia says there is no current scientific evidence to support thermal imaging’s efficacy in the early detection of breast cancer and the reduction of mortality. When the investigation started in 2015, Deidre told The Cairns Post she had cured herself of nine different types of cancer over a 12-year period.

In 2006, an otherwise healthy 76-yearold woman was diagnosed with a superficial spreading melanoma. It was a stage 1 tumour with a prognosis for a 20-year survival rate of 97 per cent. She refused surgery to remove the cancer and instead purchased a tub of black salve online.

Five years later, a dark blue, hard nodule had formed where the melanoma had been and the surrounding skin was discoloured. As the symptoms grew worse she was referred for surgery, but again failed to attend her appointment, instead purchasing more black salve online.

The melanoma eventually spread into her lymph nodes, lungs and liver. She began conventional treatment but died shortly afterwards.