A spiritual healer who claims she can treat cancer by using a special diet including cabbage juice been slammed for giving “dangerous advice” by medical experts.
Dr Corascendea Cathar, 62, who has no medical qualifications, claims her ‘Dhaxem’ healing can combat tumours.
She charges £280 per session and issues patients with a £90 dietary menu – including vegetable juice and a herbal mixture which has been rubbished by experts.
Slovakian Dr Cathar, from Cheltenham, Glos., was exposed by an undercover BBC investigation.
Former cancer patient Chris Geiger, from North Somerset, secretly filmed a two-hour appointment with Dr Cathar, whose real name is Dagmar Ebster-Grosz.
Mr Geiger, who was treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma when in his 20s, claimed he had experienced a relapse and was looking for treatment.
In the appointment, Dr Cathar gave dietary advice and told her ‘patient’: “If you want to stop cancer, you have to get high doses of quality calcium”.
Dr Cathar – who claimed to have added 10 years onto the life of a terminal cancer patient – then issued Mr Geiger with a detailed diet for a £90 fee.
The diet recommended cabbage juice “as it beats cancer” and a herbal mixture which Cancer Research UK has said holds no benefits for cancer sufferers.
The ‘doctor’ – who claims to have healed her own dog, Sophie, of cancer – told Mr Geiger that only he could heal his disease and needed to live a “pure” life to do so.
Speaking after the visit, on December 13, Mr Geiger – who has not experienced a relapse – said he was furious by Dr Cathar’s claims.
He said: “It makes me feel really angry when I heard what she was saying today.
“I just so hope that people aren’t taken for it and that she stops what she is doing immediately.”
Dr Cathar removed details of her treatments and her price list from her website, which describes cancer as an “experience” rather than a “tragedy”.
An article on her website entitled Dhaxem and Cancer encourages cancer patients to recognise their “spirit guides” as they will help beat the disease.
It states: “Cancer is not a tragedy, and neither is it a curse – it is an experience.
“Cancer starts in the Soul, prior to incarnation, and its purpose is to heal the Soul.
“Embracing the experience and taking a positive stance is the only constructive way forward.
“The way in which cancer affects the person will depend on what each Soul needs to derive from the experience.”
Professor Chris Bunce from the charity Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, said Dr Cathar’s patients would be vulnerable and called her advice “scary”.
The expert is the research director for the charity Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, and a Professor of Experimental Haematological Oncology at University of Birmingham’s School of Biosciences,
He said: “I think it’s dangerous. You’ve got to remember the people she’s talking to are scared and frightened.
“You know this kind of thing goes on but to actually see it happening is quite scary.”
In a statement, Dr Cathar insisted her treatments could help those suffering from the disease but refused to provide details of specific cases.
She said: “As a spiritual healer, I believe that cancer is connected to the soul and to the life content of a sufferer.
“A number of people I met as a healer remain my personal friends.
“That includes three people with cancer, in one case considered terminal, and they are still well and alive today.
“All three of these people live pure lives, and they do not know malice, or hate. This is at least as relevant, as their diets.”
Dr Cathar, who works as a translator, has stopped offering treatments through her website and claims she only gave Mr Geiger sessions because he “sounded desperate”.
BBC Inside Out West was broadcast last night at 7.30pm on BBC West and is available on the BBC iPlayer.
