Hoax Email-Johns Hopkins Medicine Repudiates

You may have seen the following:

“CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS”.

This hoax email reputedly from Johns Hopkins Medicine has been around for quite a few years.

Johns Hopkins Medicine posted a repudiation of this misinformation on 20 March, 2010.

I am saddened to say that it is still being recklessly promoted.

You may have come across this hoax email on the web or somehow in your locality.

Embarrassingly and saddening to me was that I discovered it in May, 2013 on a website in my home city of Brisbane, Australia:

http://www.josephine.com.au/resources/cancer-update-from-john-hopkin

The originator of the website is Josephine Thomson, a Performance Coach, Life Coach & Managing Director at Accelerated Excellence.

She isn’t alone around the world in taking up this misinformation.

The concerning thing personally for me is twofold:

1. She is an occasional presenter at the Head & Neck Cancer Support Group (Brisbane) which meets at the Cancer Council of Queensland headquarters, and

2. She continues to post this reckless misinformation despite my politely sending her emails on 06 May & 05 June, 2013; the second of which she replied to thank me for my information.

I will continue to implore her.

This is Johns Hopkins Medicine’s repudiation:

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/Email_Hoax_Regarding_Cancer

According to Josephine, she has been successfully treated conventionally for a malignant tumor of the thyroid & later of the brain.

When I first saw her post I was skeptical & did a quick web search; immediately I found the repudiation.

Was Josephine a victim of a hoax? I think not.

Did she grab the contents as it fitted her prejudices? I have my theories; you may have yours.

Be skeptical; investigate, research, ask questions and get second opinions.

Your life or the life of a loved one could depend on it.