A well-known and controversial British cancer expert will speak in Bermuda about taking a holistic approach to cancer care tomorrow at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI).

Dr. Richard Lamerton, medical director of Hospice of the Valleys in Hereford, England, will give a speech entitled ?A Vision for Total Cancer Care?, which is being given in honour of 25 years of PALS service to the community.

?Dr. Lamerton will share with us his vision for total cancer care which encompasses more than just care of the physical body,? said Ann Smith Gordon, president of PALS.

?He will talk about meeting the spiritual and emotional needs of cancer patients and the use of complimentary therapies that can be offered in conjunction with the conventional medicine to help patients and their loved ones during this difficult time.?

In 1985 Dr. Lamerton founded Hospice of the Marches in Hereford that provides home care service to patients in the border between England and Wales. It offers ?alternative medicine? combined with conventional medicine, and care for the patient from diagnosis to cure or death.

Dr. Lamerton has strong opinions about the development of home care services. He has also spoken out publicly against assisted suicide for terminally ill patients.

In an interview with the BBC in August 2001, he warned that even the mechanics of assisted suicide are not that simple. He said: ?The ways open to doctors for killing are not always effective. To be paralysed but still conscious, or not to die as expected, is a distinct risk ? all drugs sometimes fail.?

Speaking of one case of a woman with motor neurone disease who wanted help to commit suicide, he told the BBC: ?Some patients despair but most do not. Most find new depths in relationships, new meanings in life, and enough reasons to go on living. But they do need skilled care.?

Dr. Lamerton came into medicine by a somewhat reluctant route. He originally wanted to be a dancer, but his parents disapproved so he studied medicine instead at St. Bartholomew Hospital.

He suffered through the programme until he heard a professor speaking about care of the dying. He realised he had found his niche.

The lecture at the BUEI begins at 7.30 p.m. on January 12 and admission is free.