
Roger Ebert dies at 70 after battle with cancer - tptacek
http://www.suntimes.com/17320958-761/roger-ebert-dies-at-70-after-battle-with-cancer.html
======
tptacek
Fitzgerald said "the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold
two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to
function." Ebert seemed to have a knack for thinking all the thoughts
simultaneously, and then getting their product onto a page:

[http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/12/win_ben_steins_mind....](http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/12/win_ben_steins_mind.html)

[http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2013/03/how_i_am_a_roman_cat...](http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2013/03/how_i_am_a_roman_catholic.html)

One of the truly great Internet writers. My favorite:

[http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/11/the_pot_and_how_to_u...](http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/11/the_pot_and_how_to_use_it.html)

(It's not what you think!)

The blog is getting crushed right now but most of this content is in Google's
cache.

~~~
JPKab
Wow. The Fitzgerald quote is amazing. Thanks for sharing.

As a kid growing up in a poor, rural community, I wasn't exposed to much
intellectual writing. The exception was the reprint in the local paper of
Ebert's movie reviews, and of course seeing him on one of the two channels
that came in on the antenna.

When so many around me thought that being dissatisfied with the intellectual
equivalent of McDonald's was elitist, Ebert reminded me that it wasn't cynical
to look down on thoughtless garbage; rather, it was hopeful to demand that
movie studios realize that we weren't as dumb as they think we are.

~~~
gnosis
It's a sad comment on society that Ebert is considered an intellectual.

~~~
michaelochurch
This idea that new forms of media (film, TV) are innately anti-intellectual
just because the classics were in writing is ridiculous.

Don't get me wrong. Reading is important, the classics are important. But the
idea that you have to focus in "old stuff" to be intellectual is absurd.

~~~
georgeorwell
gnosis didn't say anything about film or new media. I'd be really pretty
surprised if gnosis believed there weren't "intellectual" (read: thoughtful)
things to say about film. That said, he didn't explain why it's sad that Ebert
was considered an intellectual either, so who knows.

------
sho_hn
While it might be cheap to remember a critic by something as sensationalist as
a scorcher - and Ebert was of a higher caliber than to build a career on the
entertainment value of them - his review of "Highlander 2" has been a favorite
of mine for its good-natured bickering about the gaping holes in the film's
logic:
[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19...](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19911101/REVIEWS/111010305)
(Cache:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20121026130620/http://rogerebert....](http://web.archive.org/web/20121026130620/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19911101/REVIEWS/111010305))

I think what set Ebert apart is that he consistently judged films in the
context of their ambitions. An action film was good so long as it had
effective action; films purporting to be more cerebral in nature had rather
more to answer for. He resisted the ivory tower most other writers with his
level of film knowledge would climb.

~~~
rodgerd
Your final paragraph was Ebert's great value for me: there are no shortage of
critics who can tell me interesting things about the canon of great films;
there are almost none amongst them who can also meet less elevated fare on its
own ground.

~~~
stcredzero
As I've mentioned elsewhere, Ebert wasn't trying to impress anyone. He told
the truth as he saw it. Keep doing that while being a good writer, and people
will recognize you for it.

------
danso
Ebert made his name in movie criticism but he was one of my favorite writers,
period. I've read him since I was in junior high...it sounds silly now, but
the way he would give four stars to what seemed like just a shallow
blockbuster action movie but then justify it for doing shallow action
_wonderfully_...that taught me a lot about how to judge things on what they
purport to do, rather than just against what you, the writer, prefers.

As good as his four-star reviews were, I still loved reading his 0 to 1 star
reviews. He was at great at ripping movies as he was as exalting them.

~~~
chimeracoder
> As good as his four-star reviews were, I still loved reading his 0 to 1 star
> reviews. He was at great at ripping movies as he was as exalting them.

It's typically harder to write a good positive review than a good negative
one. It's often hard to come up with praise and word it so that it doesn't
sound like a bunch of thinly-veiled cliches strung together. This was actually
Ebert's greatest strength, in my opinion.

------
chaz
Just two days ago, he announced he was taking a "leave of presence."

    
    
      Typically, I write over 200 reviews a year for the Sun-Times that are
      carried by Universal Press Syndicate in some 200 newspapers. Last year,
      I wrote the most of my career, including 306 movie reviews, a blog post
      or two a week, and assorted other articles. I must slow down now, which
      is why I'm taking what I like to call "a leave of presence."
    

[http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2013/04/a_leave_of_presense....](http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2013/04/a_leave_of_presense.html)

~~~
psychometry
He writes quite a bit about his immediate business plans. It would suggest his
death was actually quite unexpected, even though we all knew he was ill.

------
wcfields
.

I'll just leave one of my favorite quotes from Ebert about a movie that is
actually one of my all time favorite comedy.

"This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the
bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This
movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels." [1]

\- Roger Ebert review of "Freddy Got Fingered"; April 20, 2001

[1]
[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20...](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20010420/REVIEWS/104200304/1023)

~~~
tptacek
"It is true that I am fat, but one day I will be thin, and [Vincent Gallo]
will still be the director of The Brown Bunny."

~~~
jusben1369
Which is stealing/paraphrasing Winston Churchill "yes I may be drunk. But my
Dear in the morning I'll be sober and you'll still be ugly" or something close
to that.

~~~
tptacek
At the risk of dissecting the frog, the wit is in the assumptive twist about
The Brown Bunny.

He was right, by the way: he did indeed get thin (he stopped being able to eat
after losing his jaw to a surgical mishap), and Vincent Gallo is indeed still
the director of The Brown Bunny.

~~~
ethomson
To be pedantic, he lost a lot of weight before he lost his ability to eat.
After his initial cancer diagnosis (and treatment), he went on the Pritikin
diet and lost almost 90 pounds between the diet and weight loss from
treatment.

[http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2004-08-29/online-
extra-...](http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2004-08-29/online-extra-eberts-
big-thumbs-up-for-pritikin)

------
3am
I am maybe a little older than some of the readers here, pushing on the lower
end of middle age, ie, I had to memorize phone numbers/rotary phone at home
when I was very young, I had a Walkman, MTV had only one station and it played
music, etc. Perhaps I could have said Gen-X and saved some time.

Anyway, I remember Siskel and Ebert on television before there was much of an
internet to speak of. Now if you look out over the landscape of people who
successfully adapted to the new landscape of social media it's predominantly
much younger. I think it takes a special kind of mind to reinvent one's self
past a certain age, and Ebert did so very well (for whatever reason, George
Takei comes to mind, also). But it was brave of him to do so and I think it is
...helpful to all of us that have grown up online that some members of his
generation are/were willing to put themselves out of their comfort zones and
share their viewpoints and experiences in that way. RIP.

edit: " ...and get up to change the TV channel" of which there were ~10
outside of cable, and some would require rabbit ear contortions. If I could
give you more than one upvote I would have :)

~~~
jmj42
...and get up to change the TV channel

In 1990, I was in high school. We moved to a small town near Urbana, IL. I was
impressed then, and continue to be today, that Ebert would return to Urbana,
Ebert's home town, every year in April (health permitting) to headline
Ebertfest. Ebertfest is a local film festival held to honor him.

With Ebertfest only 2 weeks away, it will be truly sad knowing that the world
has lost a great man.

<http://www.ebertfest.com/>

edit: Link to Eberfest

~~~
cpher
I grew up just outside C-U and remember that very well. I think back in early
1997 he hosted a special screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Virginia
Theater. One of the actors was there (Keir Dullea, maybe?) and they had a
"fireside chat" about the movie and a Q&A session. It was a great experience.

~~~
jmj42
I remember that. I don't remember the actor either, but UIUC held all maner of
event to celebrate HAL's birth (the movies put his birth as 1992, but it's
1997 in the books).

In an interesting twist of fate, my office is in the coordinated science lab
(CSL), where HAL was built.

------
stcredzero
A lot of young people look at his scathing wit and try with varying degrees to
emulate that. His hallmark, and one of the fundamental sources of his scathing
wit was his integrity. If you're careful about writing/saying what's _true_ ,
and if you're doing it because writing/saying what's the truth is your
motivation, then you can be great like he was.

If you're just after attention and want to be known as a scathing wit, please
sit down, pipe down, and refrain from adding to the noise.

Basically, if you do it, do it because you have something to say.

~~~
jfb
The great thing about him, to me, was his unabashed love of movies; and all he
wanted to do was share this with his readers. He introduced me to the work of
Werner Herzog, and through that, a whole huge world of movies that I might not
otherwise have seen. Thanks, Robert, and RIP.

~~~
jfb
"Robert"? Sheesh.

~~~
stcredzero
I do that too. Take the 1st part of the 1st name and glom it onto the last
part of the last name.

------
jstalin
Ebert and Siskel did a show on gay cinema back in the early 80's that treated
the issue seriously, without snark or contempt. I saw a video of that episode
a few years ago and my respect for both men increased dramatically.

<http://www.ebertpresents.com/episodes/episode-208/videos/269>

------
parfe
Ebert wrote an article in 1997 about 2001: A Space Odyssey which changed the
way I watch movies. He made me start thinking about why the director and his
characters do things rather than caring specifically about what they were
doing. His work will stick with me for the rest of my life.

[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19...](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19970327/REVIEWS08/401010362/1023)

~~~
stormbrew
That's fantastic. Puts into words so well why I've loved that film so much
since the first time I saw it, even though I've actually fallen asleep to it
several times. This is basically concise proof that Ebert loved film for its
merits and not for being just another way to tell a story.

------
publicfig
This is such a shame to hear. He was one of the people who really got me into
film (amongst many others I can presume). He'll be missed.

A friend shared an article Ebert wrote in 2011 about death that I absolutely
love that I feel is incredibly relevant now. In the article he states “I know
it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the
other side of death to fear.", which I feel is a beautiful attitude to take.
The whole article is worth a read and can be found here:

<http://www.salon.com/2011/09/15/roger_ebert/>

------
jennyjenjen
My best memories of Roger Ebert were at the Conference on World Affairs at an
event called Cinema Interruptus. The CWA lasted five days and was open to the
public. Every single day of the conference, there was a Cinema Interruptus
session. On the first session, attendees watched an film in its entirety. Over
the next four sessions, the film was stopped - sometimes after a few minutes,
sometimes after mere seconds - and Mr Ebert discussed the film with the
attendees. Attendees were welcome to make their own comments, too; sometimes
it was a hassle as there are people who just enjoy hearing themselves talk.
But it was a great memory of mine that Mr. Ebert called one of my observations
"astute." I was able to say hi and shake his hand after one of the sessions,
and I was certainly impressed at how a person of such extraordinary merit
would contribute his time every year to our beloved CWA in Boulder.

He will most definitely be missed.

------
jgrahamc
Well, fuck.

~~~
rquantz
I probably shouldn't have upvoted you, but that really sums up my feeling.
Ebert was another old man who I loved, and they seem to keep dying. Which
makes sense. Maurice Sendak, Kurt Vonnegut, Paul Newman, my Grandpa... folks
who populated my childhood and who I never really pictured leaving. Well,
fuck.

~~~
hyperbovine
I feel the same way. It's as much to do with our getting old as it is with
theirs.

------
crapshoot101
From the THR review - part of the reason I liked Ebert - he wasn't
fundementally getting his rocks off on being a cynical asshole:

[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/roger-ebert-dies-
film-...](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/roger-ebert-dies-film-
critic-406274) “I am, beneath everything else, a fan. I was fixed in this mode
as a young boy and am awed by people who take the risks of performance.”

~~~
crapshoot101
PS, one more: for those of you who know Jay Mariotti (sports "commentator -
all around ass), Ebert's note on his way out was brilliant:

[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20...](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080828/COMMENTARY/808289997)

------
zwieback
Roger Ebert on the mystery of how the rice cooker knows your rice is done:

 _"How does it know? There are no dials and settings on the Pot. As far as you
can tell, there is only a heating element beneath. There doesn't look like
room for anything else to hide. How does the Pot know how long to cook the
rice? It is a mystery of the Orient. Don't ask questions you don't need the
answers to. The point here is to save you some time and money. If you want
gourmet cooking, you aren't going to learn about it here."_

source:
[http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/11/the_pot_and_how_to_u...](http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/11/the_pot_and_how_to_use_it.html)

------
gpmcadam
A wonderful (and timely) tribute to Ebert from The Onion:

[http://www.theonion.com/articles/roger-ebert-hails-human-
exi...](http://www.theonion.com/articles/roger-ebert-hails-human-existence-as-
a-triumph,31945)

------
marquis
A good conversation right now with his friends on WBEZ, his home NPR.
<http://wbez.ic.llnwd.net/stream/wbez_91_5_fm>

Great quote from Rick Hogan: when he was writing a review about a movie he
loved, "He was writing a love letter to a friend".

------
octernion
Holy cow, what a loss. One of the few film critics whose reviews I always
enjoyed (even if I didn't always agree with him).

And he just wrote about having a leave of presence! I will miss him immensely.

------
clicks
Very sad to hear. I read his reviews, not really to know how a movie was
received and whether or not it is worth watching (though you can do that too),
but to get a nice summary eloquently discussing the motifs, symbolism, and
story line of a movie after actually having watched one. I don't know where
I'll get that now.

Two big thumbs down :-(. RIP Ebert.

------
webwanderings
I was bowled over by Ebert's fascination with Dark City and I really liked it
the first time I watched. However, many years later, I watched it again and it
left me bewildered as to why I liked this movie in the first. As much as I
like and respect Roger Ebert, I think he was dead wrong on his fascination
with this movie. Great movies do not fall off of the imaginative pedestal,
only the bad one does.

As a professional movie critic, he earned respect through his craft, but I
think world of cinema is better off without any movie critic.

Rest in peace. One of my favorite quote of his:

“I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing
on the other side of death to fear. I hope to be spared as much pain as
possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and
I think of death as the same state.”

<http://www.salon.com/2011/09/15/roger_ebert/>

~~~
bcgraham
>As a professional movie critic, he earned respect through his craft, but I
think world of cinema is better off without any movie critic.

Totally disagree - the critic, at his best, spotlights movies you would have
missed, unlocks movies you would have found confusing, and rescues movies you
would have hated. They facilitate love of cinema.

~~~
webwanderings
I don't disagree with what you're saying, but you missed my context. The
professional movie critic is not necessarily a good idea for moviegoers who
are themselves fond of the craft of movies and are critics in themselves.

------
stevewillows
I admire Roger Ebert so much for the way he dealt with his cancer and the
problems that resulted from it. Truly someone who took a really bad situation
and rose above it.

He will be missed.

~~~
avenger123
I definitely concur.

For him to get out in public, keep producing work and showing the world that
he can be above the disease is very commendable.

We are never given a choice with the cards that life sometimes throws our way,
but we always have a choice with how we respond.

------
buf
"I'll see you at the movies" - Roger Ebert's last words. I still remember
seeing his TED talk
<http://www.ted.com/talks/roger_ebert_remaking_my_voice.html>

------
rubyrescue
The shear breadth of his career is just astounding, his consistency in
reviewing film after film for years. Inspiring for all of us.

~~~
astrodust
"Long live the new flesh" applies here. His corpus of writing lives on,
immortal.

------
jfc
One thing I admired about Roger Ebert was his ability to demonstrate wit
without rancor, something very few writers seem able to do.

When I read his letter to Jay Mariotti--in response to Mariotti's less-than-
dignified departure from the Sun-Times--I couldn't help but be impressed by
Ebert's thoughtfulness. I found myself going back to the letter, sensing that
I had overlooked something. I finally realized what it was: the tone of the
letter. It was ultimately hopeful!

The conclusion of that letter made it clear that Ebert was no fan of
Mariotti's, but it acted as more of a rebuke than an indication of deep
disdain.

A rare talent, indeed.

------
markgx
Wow, he just wrote his "A Leave of Presence" post the other day.

------
e40
One of the truly good humans on the planet. I will miss him.

------
leejoramo
I can think of no better way to learn about the art and history of movies than
to read through Ebert's Great Film articles. He did such a great job of
putting films in context. I loved how his "Great Films" articles always had a
good mix of films from the first movies to recent years.

[http://rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=REVIEWS...](http://rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=REVIEWS08)

------
DilipJ
surprised to read that he was an early investor of Google. I wonder how that
came about?

~~~
smacktoward
He was active in tech circles long before that sort of thing was cool. He was
a passionate advocate for Apple and the Mac during the dark days before The
Return of Steve, for instance, and used to write a regular column in one of
the big Mac magazines (can't remember which one, unfortunately). You couldn't
read the columns without realizing that he wasn't a non-techie posing as one
-- he really was a power user, a gigantic nerd who loved everything Mac at
heart.

------
brownbat
I've been digging through talk show clips with the duo on Youtube. There are
some good ones, but really, if you have a similar impulse, save yourself some
time. Just watch Red Coat Black Coat's retrospective, a little commentary, but
a lot of just clips of their interaction:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFPMlnc2Zm8>

Part 2:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXk3N8EvnWc&feature=youtu...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXk3N8EvnWc&feature=youtu.be)

------
hans0l074
R.I.P Mr.Ebert - I've spent many an idle hour reading his works, many of
which, quite frankly, were more entertaining than the movies themselves and
opened a whole world of cinema to me.

------
afreak
It's really sad to see him go. There are very few movie critics out there left
who have an objective point of view rather than those who are just doing it
because the seat needed to be filled and luxurious tickets were passed to the
publisher.

I also will have to say the best portrayal of him was in Jon Lovitz "The
Critic", where Siskel and Ebert were having a feud and it was up to Mr. Jay
Sherman to reunite them.

Animaniacs did a good portrayal of them too.

------
mtoddh
Wow, sad to hear that - ironic that cancer was what got Siskel too back when
the two of them were doing reviews together - remember "two thumbs up"?

------
bobthedino
I always loved Ebert's re-appraisal of The Big Lebowski in 2010:

"If a man has a roof over his head, fresh half-and-half for his White
Russians, a little weed and his bowling buddies, what more, really, does he
need?"

[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20...](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100310/REVIEWS08/100319989/1023)

------
zwieback
He was a national treasure.

------
xxpor
Wait what? I thought I had just read this morning the cancer had returned. I
guess he really pushed on til the very end.

~~~
tsotha
I was wondering about that too. He takes a leave of absence and dies two days
later? Makes me wonder if there was some event (like a stroke) related to his
cancer but not the cancer itself.

------
jellicle
Ebert was a great film critic, but oddly, no one here seems to be talking
about his one gigantic blind spot, which is his enduring and impenetrable
belief that video games are not art, could never be art, and have no artistic
merit whatsoever. His half-hearted apology - "I still believe this, but I
should never have said so." - is in no way a retraction or backdown from that
belief.

This is totally wrong. Movies are a subset of video games. Eventually, Ebert's
remarks on video games will stand as a laughable monument to a by-gone era.

So. Ebert had the potential to be the first great video game critic, ever. His
massive background in movies would have served him well. But he didn't have
the fortitude to make the jump.

Who's going to be the first great video game critic ever?

~~~
hristov
Nobody really cares about that. He never really got video games but he was old
and nobody expected him to. Also, only pretentious fools spend anytime arguing
about what is or isn't art.

I think we will have to look for great video game critics from our generation.

~~~
iansimon
Ian Bogost. Example review:
[http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/hun...](http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/hundreds-
is-the-haute-couture-of-video-games/272600/)

------
sergiotapia
His name is synomymous with film reviews. A legend passed away, his reviews
will remain in the ether, ready to be read by the generations to come.

------
waterlesscloud
Ebert wasn't just America's Foremost Film Critic, though he was that.

He was also America's Foremost Film Lover.

Universal sadness being expressed across the film community today.

------
fudged71
I was blessed with the opportunity to interview Ebert for an IAmA interview on
reddit in 2010. People still message me thinking that I'm him.

------
yarou
A sad day indeed. Roger Ebert had the courage to stick to his intellectual
integrity, unlike many film critics in this day and age.

------
crapshoot101
Jesus. What a brilliant effing writer, whether you agreed or not, and a
fundamentally decent man.

------
mikec3k
Fuck.

------
shill
:(

------
mprinz
I loved his critics. Except those where I had a different opinion.

------
KevinMS
What can you say about a film reviewer that gives Star Wars Episode I: The
Phantom Menace 3.5 out of 4 stars?

Useless.

I don't get all this praise I'm reading here. Despite being witty, a national
treasure, and whatever, he had one core job to do, and he was terrible at it.

~~~
tiredofcareer
> What can you say about a film reviewer that gives Star Wars Episode I: The
> Phantom Menace 3.5 out of 4 stars?

That he enjoyed it and you didn't? Some people really love that film, but I'm
perfectly willing to accept that you don't. You should be just as willing to
accept that others do.

Your comment sucks.

~~~
KevinMS
> That he enjoyed it and you didn't?

This is what a film reviewer does? He liked it watching it, so it gets a high
score? How about whether the readers of his review would like it?

> Your comment sucks.

This is HN, not reddit.

~~~
asveikau
Here I was thinking "your comment sucks" was a clever play on Ebert's "your
movie sucks".

It's funny some of the vitriol around here, on a discussion of an obituary.
Can't some guy die in peace?

(Aside, or back to the original topic, depending on perspective: In the last
decade or so I'd been really impressed by some of Ebert's writing, post-
cancer. It showed a lot of depth that you didn't get from the TV movie critic
persona that he had in the 90s.)

~~~
tiredofcareer
> was a clever play on Ebert's "your movie sucks".

It was, which fed my point when he missed it.

I'm with you. That we're even having this discussion on Roger Ebert's obit
just makes me hate people.

------
suyash
Someone needs to find 100% cure against this deadly disease. So much money is
spent on cancer research every year and what are the results..almost zero.

~~~
jpxxx
Wrong, stop, I can personally name forty people working on it right now.
Cancer is not a single thing, and progress is made on every front, every day.

~~~
tomjen3
I won't challenge you for their names, but if so many people are working on
the issue, why don't we see any progress?

Sure we have 30 ways to cure cancer in rats, but the best we can do for humans
is either to poison them with chemicals (some of them radioactive, no less) or
laser beams that are only slightly less likely to kill normal cells than
cancer cells.

Meanwhile we throw a fortune at the problem and throw a fortune at ever more
expensive treatments -- for what?

The only recent success I know of is against prostate cancer but that was only
because some ex-con got rich and started to found actual, aggressive, of the
beaten path research - and that is still not a cure and only against one form
of cancer.

So since you know these people, what do they need to get some useful research
out there? Money and fame upon success is a given (Jonas Salk comes to mind)
but what stops them?

~~~
thrizzle
There have been huge advances in, for one, breast cancer treatment over the
last 15-20 years.

When you say "for what?" I can only point to the aggressive variant of BC my
wife was diagnosed with 3 years ago. A death sentence literally a few years
ago, she is now recovered and has good prospects for a long and productive
life.

This is only possible because of the "fortune" of research thrown at her
particular form of cancer in recent years; but it goes deeper than that.
Because of the expense of the (relatively new) treatment and limited history
of efficacy/results, her specialist had to personally argue the case for her
to receive the treatment with our local health authority (I am in the UK btw
so perhaps this is different to the US).

As more women (hopefully) successfully recover with the use of this treatment,
resistance to spend on research will hopefully fade in the face of such
positive results.

From the brightest cancer researchers in the world down to the people working
in your local chemotherapy unit, progress is being made at a better rate than
ever before. It's just very hard work, and I don't think money and fame really
come into it - there are easier ways to achieve that:)

