Low-carb diet, meditation, affirmations every day helped brain cancer survivor beat illness after a ‘decade of debauchery’

Binge drinking, heavy smoking and fad diets were part and parcel of one Hongkonger’s jet-setting life – until she was diagnosed with brain cancer

She combined conventional and alternative therapies in her recovery, joined a cancer support group and now does integrative medicine to help others beat cancer

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Gillian Bertram in Bali in 2017. She combined holistic and conventional treatments on her road to recovery from brain cancer, and says: “I believe that cancer is an imbalance between the mind and body.” Photo: Gillian Bertram

Published: 6:45pm, 2 Aug 2021Updated: 6:57pm, 2 Aug 2021

Hong Kong-born Gillian Bertram was living the glamorous life that she had always dreamed of. Aged 31 and a director with a top model management agency in Paris, she would fly around the world and rub shoulders with major celebrities. It was 2015, and she had it all – or so it seemed.

The stress from her job, however, was rising, and taking a toll on her physically and mentally. “There was tremendous pressure to look like the models I was managing, and I tried one fad diet after another in my quest to look skinny,” says Bertram, who was also binge drinking and smoking heavily at the time.

She was still coming to terms with the loss of her father five months earlier when she suffered a seizure. Doctors put it down to bereavement – but, when a second seizure followed six weeks later, a CT (computerised tomography) scan revealed that there was a large mass in her brain.

Bertram had surgery to remove the tumour, but the subsequent diagnosis was grim: she had malignant grade three brain cancer. Her life as she was living it skidded to a halt.

A scan revealed there was a large mass in Bertram’s brain. Her life as she was living it skidded to a halt. Photo: Gillian Bertram

“Cancer was a wake-up call for me that led me on a journey to take charge of my health and well-being,” says Bertram, who transformed her lifestyle and her career. She is now a nutritional therapist, functional medicine practitioner and integrative cancer coach providing support to cancer patients.