A Farmers Herbal Cure for Skin Cancer, Co. Wexford, Ireland 1969

A farmer believes an old family herbal ointment is a cure for skin cancer.

William Deakin, claims to have a cure for cancer. A Wexford tillage farmer, not a doctor who on his own admission has not the foggiest notion on medical matters.

The County Wexford farm which scores of people see as a haven of hope.

William Deakin believes that he has the secret to curing skin cancer without the intervention of medical procedures such as radiation or surgery. His cure is a simple homemade ointment made from herbs gathered on his farm. The secret recipe has been handed down through generations of his family.

This he applies to the supposedly diseased skin of the hundreds who come to him.

While it appears that this ointment is effective in removing some kind of growth, there is no evidence that it is cancer. A growth, “like a tiny octopus” has emerged from all his patients. ‘Newsbeat’ offered to have one of the growths tested in a laboratory to ascertain if it was cancer. However, William Deakin turned down the offer on the basis that the secret recipe of the ointment might be uncovered.

Farmer Daniel Nolan, retired businessman James Donoghue, farm worker’s wife Meg Denton, and clerk and union official Peter Murphy, all attest to the efficacy of the William Deakin treatment. While they all claim to be cured, none had a medical diagnosis that their ailments were cancer.

Eventually, the whole thing came out in the poultice, a sort of a big black spider with roots and all attached.

William Deakin explains that the herbal remedy was handed down to him from his mother and generations before her. The herbal paste is placed on the infected area for 216 hours to be exact according to William Deakin. None of the people has treated are referred to him by a doctor. He says doctors would not approve of his treatment. William Deakin claims to know that someone has cancer by instinct. He refutes any claims that what he is doing is in any way dangerous and he does not charge for the service.

If they had nothing to give me, I wouldn’t let them die if I could keep them alive.

This episode of ‘Newsbeat’ was broadcast on 5 March 1969. The reporter is Michael Ryan.