The Black Death

Many people diagnosed with cancer will do anything to beat the disease. And as Genevieve Gannon discovers, unscrupulous “healers” are peddling a toxic black “miracle cure” to cash in on their fear.

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After the planes hit the twin towers in September 2011, a Melbourne nurse named Helen Lawson signed up for emergency response training that would equip her to work in a specialist medical team if there was a terror attack in Australia. It was a very “Helen” thing to do, her partner’s sister Deb Davies says. The devoted health worker was an indefatigable woman, motivated by a strong sense of compassion.

“Nothing Helen did was by halves,” Deb says. “She was an absolute machine. She was only 5’10” but she was an amazon.”

A loving partner and a senior nurse, Helen lived a healthy life that revolved around cycling and work, which is why it was so shocking to everyone who loved her when, faced with a cancer diagnosis, she decided to bypass evidence-based medicine in favour of an alternative treatment being spruiked by a “spiritual healer”. In 2017, a man named Dennis Wayne Jensen, who ran a business out of his home in Warrandyte, Victoria, convinced Helen that he had cured his own brain tumours, and he would cure her, too. He told her to reject conventional treatment and put her faith in him. Helen did, and she suffered excruciating consequences.