PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jill Felicity Durey
TI  - John Buchan’s race through life, chased by his only foe—illness
AID  - 10.1136/medhum-2022-012585
DP  - 2023 Sep 01
TA  - Medical Humanities
PG  - 468--478
VI  - 49
IP  - 3
4099  - http://mh.bmj.com/content/49/3/468.short
4100  - http://mh.bmj.com/content/49/3/468.full
SO  - J Med Humanit2023 Sep 01; 49
AB  - This article examines John Buchan’s experience of gastric illness, dyspepsia and duodenal ulcers within the medical context of his life during the first half of the twentieth century. In tracing some of the different and changing approaches to gastric illness over the intervening decades, it compares the medical knowledge and practices of that period with medical knowledge and treatment today. The article’s low key empirical intersectional examination, too, touches on both ethics and justice. Its importance lies not only in its discussion on past and present medicine, but also in its scrutiny of Buchan’s extraordinarily dutiful approach to his active and varied careers, often marred for him by sudden onsets of illness. Buchan’s coping mechanisms, including mental and physical endurance, are spotlighted in his life and in some of his works, frequently written when he was in pain, or recuperating from illness. Both his fiction and non-fiction had multiple purposes: to support his extended family; to help his country; to help his fellow countrymen escape into adventure during war; and to help himself escape from pain.Data sharing is not applicable as no data sets were generated and/or analysed for this study. Not applicable.