Even Celebrities Are Not Immune To Iron Overload — Speculation and Proof

This entry marks part five in a series on Hemochromatosis.

When I look back over the years, I sometimes shudder to think of the effrontery of some of my actions. Sitting in a motor home at Vancouver Airport years ago, I read a book called Bouvier: The Life and Times of Jackie O's Father, a paperback by Kathleen Bouvier. I was already riveted by the mention of some very provocative symptoms (one of which had given rise to the nickname Black Jack), but when I reached the end of the story and found that he had had liver problems, I was so concerned that –- then and there in the motor home — I wrote a letter to Mrs. Bouvier, care of the publisher, begging her to persuade Mrs. Kennedy to go for tests, and posted the letter, right there at the airport!

While researching this I came across a note on the Internet, which tells us that, “John Vernon Bouvier III (May 19, 1891, Easthampton, Massachusetts – August 3, 1957, New York, New York) was an American socialite and Wall Street stockbroker. He was the father of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Princess Lee Radziwill. His nickname was Black Jack, referring to his omnipresent dark tan and his flamboyant lifestyle.” As I did not receive a response to my letter, I have no way of knowing whether my concern was warranted or not!

Steve (Terrence Steven) McQueen

Another celebrity over whom I agonized was this blue-eyed, cool on the outside, but rebellious turmoil on the inside actor whom I had first seen in The Great Escape, a World War II epic, together with James Garner. His steely image had, according to the Internet, made him a box-office phenomenon the 1960s and early '70s. I was shocked to learn of his illness and, although we did not yet have television in South Africa at that stage, I followed his progress with great interest on the radio.

By the time he died of cardiac arrest at a clinic in Mexico in 1980, one day after undergoing surgery for cancer, he had gone from pillar to post trying to find a cure for what ailed him. By then he had tried various non-medical treatments, including the use of laetrile, a derivative of apricot kernels, and other procedures involving, among others, the injection of live cells from cows and sheep, coffee enemas, frequent shampoos and massage. I could never find confirmation of my conjectures and, before his death, he had given a medical interview in which he blamed his disease on exposure to asbestos. Only later would the cause of death be specified as Hemochromatosis.

Article Author: Marie Warder

Born in Ficksburg, South Africa, trained to be a journalist, fell in love - for keeps - at 16, married at 19, wrote novels, played the piano in my husband's dance band for 35 years, had two children, studied to be a teacher, started my own school and …

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