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Dr. Porter’s Cancer Centre is housed in a modest medical complex on the edge of downtown Nassau. Visitors are screened at the front door and then directed down a long corridor to a reception area. On Tuesday, the waiting room was nearly empty. One patient sat for almost an hour before being summoned to the front desk; she handed over a wad of US$100 bills and was directed back to her chair.

Promotional posters adorn the waiting room walls. One touts the centre’s “World Renowned Oncologists,” namely Dr. Porter and his partner, Karol Sikora, an alternative treatment advocate with ties to Libya’s fallen Gaddafi regime.

Minutes ticked by. Then Dr. Porter came through a doorway and approached me. Despite the unexpected visit, he did not seem upset or displeased. Dressed in casual attire — khakis, an open-necked shirt, no sign of his trademark bow tie — he smiled and explained that he was too busy to talk there and then. “I have to see a patient,” he said. “I have to focus on my patient right now.”

He agreed to meet later, and promised to call. He didn’t, but we spoke at some length that evening; Dr. Porter answered his cell phone. He said that despite the late hour, he was still at his cancer centre, and he had hospital rounds to conduct before going home. Once again, he promised to arrange a meeting for Wednesday.

That never transpired. Late Wednesday evening, after more correspondence with me, including an apologetic email and an 8:30 p.m. phone call, Dr. Porter issued through a colleague a surprise statement: He had been diagnosed with cancer and was in a local hospital, awaiting surgery. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment would be subsequently be performed at his clinic.