Jessica Ainscough was diagnosed in 2008 with a rare form of cancer, Epithelioid Sarcoma, with a low survival rate over the last ten years. Jess was twenty-two years of age when diagnosed, and was already enjoying a successful career in Australia.
Jess was a white female, living in Sydney Australia. Her social class was of a middle-upper level, with a father as a high-ranking army officer. Jess’s career was up and coming, enjoying a successful job at a magazine company with her good looks (she did some modeling) and she enjoyed a good social life (admittedly did a little too much alcohol and partying at times).
Despite her success and social status, Jess appeared to be grounded and compassionate, actively supporting a local animal shelter. Her family dynamics appeared strong, specifically with her mother, and this was most apparent when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Jess was engaged to get married in 2015; her fiancé was a pillar in her life, being there for her during her ups and downs. There appeared to be no financial strains within the family, in fact her wealth increased substantially after being diagnosed and creating ‘The Wellness Warrior’ brand.
Jessica died February 2015 after complications with her cancer.
Her Cancer and Approach
Jess was diagnosed with a rare form of Cancer when she was twenty two years of age. The Cancer was in her left arm and treatment recommendation by medical staff was to amputate Jess’s arm at shoulder level.
At this stage the disease was not debilitating, the shock of learning how terminal this prognosis was and possibility of amputation was overwhelming for Jess. Even with amputation, there was a very good chance the cancer could resurface.
Jess felt that traditional medicine, amputation and consistent chemotherapy thereafter were not going to be a viable option for her. After a failed attempt of a new focused chemo treatment, Jess made a decision to fight the disease on her own terms using a natural approach called the Gerson Therapy.
This approach consisted of an alcohol-free vegan diet, drinking raw juices, vitamin supplements and daily coffee enemas. This approach has been highly criticised in medical circles for lack of scientific rigor.
Resilience and Psychosocial Adaption
Ungar (Unger, Ghazinour & Richter, 2013) defines resilience
‘In the context of exposure to significant adversity, resilience is both the capacity of individuals to navigate their way to the psychological, social, cultural, and physical resources that sustain their well-being and their capacity individually and collectively to negotiate for these resources to be provided and experienced in culturally meaningful ways.
Significant adversity can be qualified into three categories; psychosocial (violent crime, rape, domestic violence etc.); natural disaster (Terrorism; tsunami; hurricane Catrina etc.); biological (heart attack, stroke, Cancer etc.) (Theron, 2015).
This brief case study aims to demonstrate resilience in Malanie’s life. Resilience is a process consisting of numerous factors (psychosocial, psychological etc.).
The interaction of these factors on a person (Jess) over time determines a level of well-being as positive outcome (adaption).
The following is a description showing the interrelation of events and factor in Jess’s path of resilience.
Psychosocial Ecology
To describe the resilience process it is important to gain context to the particular environment (Theron, 2015). This serves to understand the various factors acting on the environment and also degree of risk weighing on individual outcome.
At a macro level, being in a developed country with good access to world class medical care the chance of survival is increased (availability of stronger assets), as opposed to being in a rural village in a developing country. Furthermore, being raised in a middle-upper social class further increased Jess’s means to resources needed for her survival (monetary, social, education etc.).
At a more micro level the the pathway model (Masten, 2001) demonstrates the interaction (process) of factors (social, cultural, psychological etc.) on Jess’s path to resilience. Masten (2011) refers to factors as these as assets.
The more assets available, the better the outcome to be. An asset can be positive or negative (detrimental impact to resilience).
Close family displayed good support through diagnoses and treatment (positive impact). Jess was very close to her mother, which was a source of strength for her.
However, when Jess’s mother passed away from breast cancer, this affected Jess negatively. Her communication and activity declined, and physical attributes of the disease became more apparent and within twelve months Jess also died.
Masten (2015) makes reference that if somebody close or the social circle of an individual collapses, it has social, psychological, and even physical detrimental effect.
Jessica had a fiancé and was set to be married 2015, which indicated good outlook to her future (positive impact). The Wellness Warrior brand and business was doing very well. Jess’s popularity (use of personal blog and other forms of social media) spread to thousands of people, which included admirers of her will power and not just fellow cancer suffers.
She made good commercial incomes through conducting seminars and the sale of her book (positive impact).
Jess’s worked with some of the best medical experts in Australia, both in consulting with her prognosis, and during the last year in her life, when it became apparent that the Gerson Therapy was not working for her. During the last year the writer suggests a positive impact, as a source of hope to her deaerating health.
At the beginning stages of medical consultation the impact was negative; Jess was fearful and with little hope, treatment of the disease was amputation of her left arm to shoulder level, with consistent use of chemotherapy thereafter, which ‘devastated’ her.
The Gerson Therapy, of which Jess was ambassador for, pursued it as an active treatment option for her cancer. It created a positive impact on her. However, over time it became apparent this form of treatment was not working for her, especially with the negative impact of her mother’s death (who also used the Gerson Therapy treatment). This resulted in further consultation with medical teams.
Lastly, Jess’s public advocacy for the use of diet over medical remediation created many critics. Many of these critics came from medical backgrounds that called for her to stop giving false hope to other cancer patients and saying that what she was doing is unethical and endangering lives.
This had a negative effect that increased when it became apparent that the Gerson Therapy was not working.
Individual
At twenty-two years of age Jess was successful in the media industry and a model. This gives an impression that she had a high-level of self-efficacy, intellect and good physical attributes – making for an independent and good life before being diagnosed.
When diagnosed she consulted various medical resources, the prognosis of which she was not comfortable with and as such decided to take her own destiny in hand to follow a naturalistic path (Gerson Therapy) to combating the disease.
By doing this she felt she was giving meaning to her situation by sharing and helping other cancer sufferers through her research, blog, coaching and roadshows.
The illustration below shows overtime Jess’s resilience path over time.
This case study is by no means an exhaustive review of resilience; rather it serves to demonstrate that resilience is a complex construct, and that there is no ‘single bullet’ to resiliency, rather a process and interplay of factors, both personal and psychosocial.
The interplay between personal agency and social is an interesting dynamic, specifically Jess’s interaction with medical professionals and Gerson Therapy critics. Jess made a choice to pursue a naturalistic therapy to fight her cancer; did she make the right choice?
It appears the choice empowered her, giving meaning to her predicament and purpose in helping and guiding others. If she left her fate to experts solely on fear and desperation, would she have reached the same level of joy, achievement and inspiration to others?
Perhaps she would have died within the first year, relatively unknown to others but her family. Jess weighed out her options, and followed the one she believed to be more empowering, it not only resulted in her achieving a lot in her seven years, but she lived with dignity by choice.
References
ABC News (2015) Jessica Ainscough: Family, friends gather to remember ‘The Wellness Warrior’ who lost battle with rare cancer
Gerson Institute (2015) In Memory of Jess Ainscough, The Wellness Warrior. March 6, 2015. https://gerson.org/gerpress/in-memory-of-jess-ainscough-the-wellness-warrior/
Holistic Dad (2015) Jess Ainscough on the Wellness Journey. June, 30, 2014. http://www.holisticdad.net/tag/jess-ainscough/
Masten, A. (2001). Ordinary Magic: Resilience Process in Development. American Psychologist, Vol. 56, No. 3, 227-228: USA
Masten, A. (2011) Resilience in Children Threatened by Extreme Adversity: Frameworks for research, practice, and translational synergy. Development and Psychopathology 23 (2011), 493-506; Cambridge University Press: USA
Masten, A. (2015) Resilience in Children Exposed to Trauma, Disaster and War: Global perspectives. Coursera: online course: University of Minnesota. https://www.coursera.org/course/resilienceinchildren.
Pockets of Peace (2015) Pockets of Peace Interview Series –Jess Ainscough. July, 5, 2013. http://pocketsofpeace.com.au/pockets-of-peace-interview-series-jess-ainscough/
Science Blogs (2015) Respectful Insolence. December 16, 2014. http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/12/16/jess-ainscough-finally-admits-her-condition-is-deteriorating/
Stanton, A., Danoff-Burg, S., & Huggins, M. E. (2002) The First Year After Breast Cancer Diagnosis: Hope and Coping Strategies as Predictors of Adjustment. Psycho-Oncology 11: 93-102 (2002). Wiley InterScience: USA
Science-Based Medicine. (2015) The Gerson protocol, cancer and the death of Jess Ainscough, a.k.a “The Wellness Warrior”. March, 2, 2015. http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-gerson-protocol-and-the-death-of-jess-ainscough/
Theron, L. (2015). Resilience: Some introductory thoughts. MAPP lecture notes; North West University: 2015.
Ungar, M., Ghazinour, M., & Richter, J. (2013). Annual Research Review: What is resilience within the social ecology of human development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54:4 (2013) pp 348-366. In Ungar, M. (2008). Resilience Across Cultures. British Journal of Social Work, 38, 218–235.
Wissing, M. P., Potgieter, J. C., Guse, T., Khumalo, I., & Nel, L. (2014) Towards Flourishing: Contextualizing Positive Psychology. Van Schaik: South Africa
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