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One day in 2006, in the company of Jim, I found myself in the Ponterdawe Inn situated off a main road north of Port Talbot. We were there to attend the Ponterdawe Acoustic Music Club, Jim as a participant and me as an observer. Jim, a life long musician, was in his element. Along with some fifteen other participants he had brought his instrument of choice, a banjo, to join in a long session of spontaneous music without rules. It took me a while to get used to the free form of the evening. In the beginning people found their own level. As the bar filled with sometimes conflicting sounds, the large room seemed like an exciting experiment; guitars, mandolins, banjos, violins, even spoons fought to be heard. As the evening wore on the individuals began to come together, playing collectively or individually pieces that they had mastered and wanted to share. It was one of the most enjoyable evenings of my life, particularly because I could sit and watch Jim concentrate on getting it right with his banjo; this in itself was a study in learning. But as well the evening brought back to me memories of the anarchy of collective learning and practice in different forms that I had witnessed during the libertarian politics of the late 1960s and early 1970s. For a large part of his life, Jim with his wife Sandra, having won an episode of Opportunity Knocks — one of the original British TV talent shows hosted by the inimitable Hughie Green — toured the world playing pop and folk in unlikely places. Sandra was the singer in the band with a sharp and lilting voice. When the band broke up, Jim embarked on a life's search for the truth', which included running a community church, making alternative medical treatments cheaply available, and finally, after Sandra's death from cancer, a year before his own, intense learning about spiritualism. But whatever else Jim did in his life, it seemed to me that he was fundamentally a musician. He spoke with real commitment about his instruments exhibited around the house, his playing and his son's talents as a guitarist. In 2005 and 2006, Jim spent his spare time assiduously transcribing the arrangements of songs and music from the guitar, which he had played since being a teenager, to the banjo, which he had only recently taken up; it being a more suitable instrument for his interest in Celtic folk songs. He played the banjo with the same self-depreciating humour with which he approached much of what he did, and with a serious scholastic concern for 'getting it right'. * * * Jim always seemed to be full of energy; it shone from him as if he was running on batteries. At the same time, he was no one's fool, possessing that Welsh shrewdness that always made him give consideration to important questions. He was not a man of words, not a Welshman who could wax lyrical. He smiled a great deal, was often quiet, and usually happy. His life was continually summed up by positive rather than negative thoughts such as ‘I enjoy my life so much’. He often surprised me with his brief statements and aphorisms, sometimes so unusual that they stung one into thought. Once when discussing family life with him, probably for my part moaning at the struggle it presented, he said, 'Our children were a joy to bring up, such a joy’. I had to look at him twice to check that he wasn't joking. He wasn't, this was Jim at his most transparent. He was in love with all those bits of life that we are all supposed to be in love with but rarely are. In the last year of his life, however, following Sandra's death, his demeanour changed. It was as if a shadow had fallen over him. Lost in thought, he looked frequently like a man who had forgotten something important. During their marriage Jim and Sandra brought up two children, Vanessa and Chris, both of whom have turned into talented adults. Vanessa, in her early thirties, married with a son and a daughter, gained a degree at Swansea University. Chris, who Jim says, appeared uninterested in his parents' music, when he was young, picked up a guitar at twelve and very quickly taught himself to play. With single-minded practice he worked his way into music school and proved to be a virtuoso guitarist. I first met Jim in the same way that I have met a number of people over the last thirty years, when I offered my help in his legal case. In 2004 I looked at the case of a therapist in Wales who had been charged by the Medicines Control Agency (MCA, now the MHRA) after being ‘exposed’ in a BBC programme. Following up other of the ‘exposed’, I found Jim. Jim first came into contact with alternative medicine when he read about Jason Vale and his commitment to Laetrile as a curative agent in cancer. It was then that he started, as many people do these days, to research the subject of cancer on the internet. He quickly found the book World Without Cancer, by Edward G. Griffin, and, having read that, he contacted some of the people who gave testimonies on Jason Vale’s website. In 1998, Jim set up Ynoddfa Marketing to offer alternative, non-toxic remedies to support people battling serious illnesses Ynoddfa, is Welsh for 'refuge', Jim began by buying and selling apricot stones and vitamin B17. At that time he was still running the church and any ‘wages’ he received came from the church in the form of gifts. This was never enough to live on, and he and Sandra would regularly sell their possessions. It was grim, and they only just scraped by. In 2003, Jim was set up by the BBC in one of their programmes, itself a scam and a fraud. In April 2003, he received a phone call from a young woman who claimed to be acting on behalf of her partner who had cancer. In fact she was working on a short ethicless regional programme for the BBC; Week In Week Out. Following the programme, Jim's house was raided by the MHRA. Jim and Sandra both expressed the view that the MHRA 'police' had during the raid treated them like the dregs of the world, like drug dealers; the ex-cops being disrespectful and arrogant. 'They definitely wanted to frighten me’, said Jim. They even managed to insult Sandra, in the normal amoral and foul mouthed manner of the lost generations of Life on Mars style Scotland Yard detectives. Despite the raids, during which time they took all the paper work and all the stock from Jim's house and office, Jim was not charged. When I got involved in his case, both Jim and I were keen on the lawyer pushing for the return of his stock and the paper work. This in turn forced the MHRA to produce eleven criminal charges. Facing these charges, Jim's case came up at Swansea Crown Court. Although Jim didn't know it at the time, the ex-Scotland yard detectives working for the MHRA had been involved in the BBC programme which they claimed had entrapped him. Throughout Jim's court case, I stayed with him and Sandra in Port Talbot in the house that Jim had been born. The case itself was a classic MHRA operation, the prosecution distorted the evidence, were economical with the truth, and cast aspersions without evidence, painting Jim as a heartless, conniving quack. People respond differently when you ask to intervene in, observe and write about their work, especially when they are involved in a court case. Most defendants become hog-tied by their lawyers and lose touch with their lives, performing to some invisible protocol laid down by the legal system. I didn’t need to bear any of this in mind when I worked with Jim. He wanted to go on the offensive, to complain to the MHRA about the seizure of his property and its non return. He complained vociferously about the fact that the raid had temporarily ended his business but had not resulted in any hearing. Jim seemed to naturally appreciate the mutuality and co-operation which has always been one of the principles of my work. The judge in the case had decided that the jury were able to decide what was and what was not a medicine, so letting the MHRA off their statutory duty and allowing them to avoid their legal commitment to discuss and forewarn offenders about the rules on advertising. The jury decided, off the top of their heads, that some of the products Jim sold were medicines while others were not, consequently the MHRA won six of the charges while Jim won five. After the case ended, I wrote a short book about Jim and the case, titled The Fate of a Good Man. Oddly at the time, and even now, it is the non-legal matters that have stuck in my mind. On the second day of the proceedings the paper local to the court house, carried a large picture on the front page of Jim entering the building. Jim commented later: 'In another court at Swansea, at the same time as me, was a chap who robbed and assaulted another man with a gun; he never made the papers, but it seems to me that selling vitamins was a much worse offence than armed robbery and GBH; the barrister was saying that I could hang for it', he joked. Within a short time of helping with his case, Jim had laid out a web site for me and begun distributing my books. There were things which made it immediately easy to work with Jim: his patent honesty, his desire to help people and his lack of interest in enriching himself. When I stayed with Jim and Sandra helping him during the court case I saw two people with a domestically comfortable life immersed in society, friends and extended family. Still after 40 years of marriage very much in love with each other. Sandra was working three days a week for the county health authority and Jim saw his provision of health products as a constructive community service. Jim spent the last decade of his life deeply involved in the health freedom movement. He didn't just sell products, he got involved in the movement to help people and fight for freedom of choice in health care. The raids on his house and the court case shocked him and Sandra with their wilful disregard for truth and elemental fairness. Although some found Jim's involvement in a criminal court case demeaning, Jim's attitude and his own words reflected in my book, reflect the honesty of his views, not just in relation to medicine but many different areas of his life, as he says, 'My only motive was then, as it is now, to help people'. In some ways Jim was too good for this world, a lamb amongst the wolves, a thoughtful, brave and honest man who did his best throughout his life to support his family and serve his community. A good friend to many he will be sorely missed. Martin J WalkerIn Memoriam
Walter James Wright
June 1943 - October 2011
ORDERING BOOKS FROM SLINGSHOT PUBLICATIONS
Following Jim's death, I have had to make a number of decisions about the Slingshot website and the ordering of Slingshot books. Until changes have been instigated in relation to these matters, anyone wishing to order any books or essays on this site, should contact me by email on fraka@arrakis.es. When the order has been priced, cheques made out to me, Martin J Walker, can be sent to:
Slingshot Publications,
BM BOX 8314,
London WC1N 3XX.
England.
The ordering process may take a little longer now that Jim's efficient hands are not handling the post and packing but I can assure you that the books are still 'good to read'. Please note that the BUY NOW links on the site have been disabled.
THE FATE OF A GOOD MAN
Download a complimentary copy of my book about Jim and his court case here.
Of doctors, epidemiologists, researchers, advisers, insurance scammers, quackbusters, bad journalists, corporate scientists, industry shills and other agents who do now or have in the past worked for, sided with, supported or simply been a part of corporate interests, manufacturing, pushing or promoting, products or ideologies antagonistic to the private and public health of workers, consumers, citizens, patients, alternative practitioners and science in the public interest; who they are, how to recognise them and their organisations, and what to do about them.
Dirty Medicine: The handbook is Martin Walker’s twenty year follow up to his book, Dirty Medicine:Science, big business and the assault on natural health care. In this new book Walker gives a full and detailed picture of the vested interests, their personalities, organisations and ideas that have shaped the present attack on alternatives in the field of health. Alternative and complementary medicine is under attack on all fronts, The Handbook gives us the knowledge with which to defend ourselves and fight back.
ORDERS: Single copies of the book are £15 or €18 Euros plus postage which inside Britain will be £3.00 and in Europe €6.
10 books can be bought for £9 each per book plus postage and packing.
The price of 20 books will be £7.50 each plus postage and packing.
The cost of 50 and 100 – the maximum bulk order – will be £5.00 plus postage and packing. Bulk orders, orders for sales in shops or other outlets, or requests for review copies, can be negotiated either through the Slingshot website or by
Email to: dirtymedicine@live.co.uk.No orders will be dispatched without payment...
Go to orders page for details CLICK HERE