The Tap Water issue

Kathy Downer’s story

Kathleen Downer was happily settled in her married life when, in 1983, over a ten week period both her husband and daughter were diagnosed with cancer – testicular and the ALL form of leukemia.

Kathleen knew from local gossip that there were a number of other cases of childhood leukemia in the village and the neighbouring village where she lived near Bournemouth (south England). Thinking that there might be some common factor with all these cases, she found the addresses of a dozen families and went and paid a visit. It quickly became apparent to her that there was an odd thing that was common. 10 out of the twelve families lived at the end of a cul de sac.

Deciding to expand her investigations she managed to get the addresses of 67 families affected by cancer within a wider area (mainly in response to an article in her local newspaper). Of these 37 were at the end of cul de sacs – a further 12 were the first house in the street next to the corner house, a further 12 had a fire hydrant outside the door. Thinking about these features her suspicions rested on the water supply and she made enquiries of the local water boards. She soon discovered that a number of houses on her list that weren’t in cul de sacs were nevertheless situated next to a closed tap on the water main. She also discovered that a few years previously both the water board and the fire brigades had stopped doing a regular flush of the system. Flushing of fire hydrants and dead end water systems is essential to clear systems from the gradual build up of mineral and other deposits. After flushing, local tap water will typically be discoloured and although water authorities insist that this water is potable, advice is to avoid using this water for laundry purposes. The question naturally occurs: If it’s not acceptable for laundry purposes why would it be considered drinkable? Another question also occurs: If water pipes are not cleared by means of flushing then presumably there is a build up of undesirable matter in the pipes. Could this have an impact on the health of those living immediately adjacent to these sites? So Kathy Downer, assuming that there was something in the mains water supply – either an unhealthy high calcium content or a chemical contaminant of some sort, switched to using filtered water for her daughter. Since her daughter’s blood counts were being carefully monitored during the course of her chemo treatment, the impact of this change was almost immediately detected. Immediately there were noticeable improvements in her daughter’s blood counts and in her ability to withstand the toxicity of the drugs. Later she used bottled water* with the same benefits. Even more astonishingly, her daughter began to grow again (the chemo has the effect of severely stunting growth). Her daughter and husband both recovered from their cancers.

This effect mirrors the benefits that Connah Broom (whose story I have written about in The Amazing Cancer Kid Amazon (USA)  http://amzn.to/1AAguxK    Amazon (UK) http://amzn.to/18YXeE2 )  experienced. Soon after switching to filtered water he was able to withstand his extremely punitive chemotherapy treatments without the side effects he had previously experienced and which were commonly experienced by the other children.

*Note: Bottled Water: Bottled water comes from many varied sources – and some is just unfiltered tap water. If you need to drink bottled water choose a brand that you trust.