A GP who suffered from cancer has written a book to help those facing a similar challenge.

Dr Richard Scott, who works at Bethesda Medical Centre in Margate alongside GP wife Heather, decided to mix his experiences and his Christian faith to offer a guide to tackling the disease from both medical and religious angles.

The Kingsgate father-of-three said: “Three years ago I hit the news because I was speaking about faith to patients and the General Medical Council received a complaint. In defending myself I produced statistics which showed that sharing faith helps recovery. It was helpful to me to know that speaking to patients about God helps them.

“When I became ill with bowel cancer it helped me to know that God was active in fighting the disease in addition to treatment and getting people praying for me made a big difference.”

The 53-year-old knows that early detection and treatment can make a big difference to the chances of recovery but took some time to seek his own treatment.

He said: “Doctors are not so smart at treating themselves. I had been having classic bowel symptoms in early 2011. If a patient had come to me with the same symptoms, they would have been investigated. I had surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

“The treatment took a year and I had 10 and half months off work but during that time I was able to write.

“The book is about helping people understand that to get the best treatment, they also need to consider the spiritual aspect of their treatment and I have statistics to show that faith helps the treatment and that Christians live longer.

“The second half of the book deals with common questions such as Why me? and Why is this so unfair?”

Dr Scott, who preaches regularly in St Paul’s Church, Cliftonville, isn’t planning to hang up his pen just yet. He said: “I’ve almost finished my autobiography.”