Early A.A. was not about “relationships anonymous.” Whether they read the Bible, the Ten Commandments, or the Four Absolutes, AAs were given much instruction on how to behave in accordance with God’s will. This is true today in only a very limited Dr. Bob's Nightmare". Alcoholics Anonymous: the story of how many thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism (PDF) (4thed.). New York, New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. 2002. ISBN 1-893007-16-2. OCLC 408888189 . Retrieved 14 February 2012. Through these years Dr. Bob was an active member of the City Hospital Staff and often he had occasion to go to St. Thomas Hospital, where in 1934 he became a member of the Courtesy Staff and in 1943 a member of the Active Staff. It was during one of these visits to St. Thomas, in 1928, that in the course of his duties, he met Sister Mary Ignatia, whose work with alcoholics was to become a legend. Anne Smith recommended reading at least one book on the life of Christ a year for a while, commenting that even more would be better. Dr. Bob’s daughter confirmed that Dr. Bob read these. They included: Jesus of Nazareth: A Biography by George A. Barton, The Life of Jesus Christ by The Rev. James Stalker, Studies of the Man Christ Jesus by Robert E. Speer, The Jesus of History by T. R. Glover, The Manhood of the This aspect of Dr. Bob’s reading was considered so important that his Bible was donated to the King School Group (A.A. Number One), and it is taken to the podium at the beginning of each meeting, to this very day a ceremony the author personally witnessed in the company of Dr. Bob’s daughter Sue.

Then, towards the end of 2004, the Scottish Cancer Group, which had been in existence since about 2001, was going through some changes. It had previously been chaired by Anna Gregor, the Scottish “Cancer Czar”, someone, in Bob’s words, with a “clear view on where cancer services should be going”:Now he held a Dartmouth diploma, but the desire to become a medical doctor was still with him. His mother, who had never approved of this career for her son, hadn’t altered her views. For the next two years he worked for a large scale company; then he went to Montreal where he labored at selling railway supplies, and heavy hardware. He left Montreal and went to Filene’s store in Boston. Dr. Bob was intensely interested in the efficacy of prayer, and his library bespeaks this interest. Among his many books about the subject of prayer were Glenn Clark’s The Soul’s Sincere Desire, Starr Daily’s Recovery, Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Charles and Cora Filmore’s Teach Us to Pray, Emmet Fox’s Getting Results by Prayer, Gerald Heard’s A Preface to Prayer, Frank Laubach’s Prayer (Mightiest Force in the World), Charles M. Layman’s A Primer of Prayer, William R. Parker’s Prayer Can Change Your Life, and F. L. Rawson’s The Nature of True Prayer. Alcoholics Anonymous. Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers: a Biography, with Recollections of Early A.A. in the Midwest. New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1980. N.B.: No identification of individual author(s) or editor(s) of the text is made. ISBN 0-916856-07-0 As we know, radiotherapy can affect both blood vessels and the lymphatic vessels, and the effects can last for the rest of a person’s life. While he was Lead GP for Cancer, Bob wanted to find out what GPs thought about existing cancer services and so he started visiting local practices:

If early AAs wanted to know God’s instructions on faith, believing, prayer, study of His Word, forgiveness, healing, deliverance, love, restitution, service, resentment, fear, selfishness, dishonesty, their literature was replete with road maps to pertinent sections of the Bible and teachings about these things. Bill, Bob, and many early A.A.’s read Professor William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience (cited by name in A.A.’s Big Book) and Dr. Carl Gustav Jung’s Modern Man in Search of a Soul. Jung was later called a “founder” of A.A. as was William James. The first two years in Akron, as a young intern, were free of trouble. Hard work took the place of hard drinking simply because there wasn’t time for both. At one time during his internship he ran the hospital pharmacy by himself. This, added to other duties, took him all over the hospital, running up and down the stairs because the elevators were too slow, running here, rushing there as if the devil were after him. All this frenzied activity never failed to bring about an explosive, “Now where is that cadaverous young Yankee!” from one of the older doctors who became particularly fond of him. Dr. Bob’s daughter told the author that her father frequently stayed up late into the night studying the Bible (Dr. Bob’s Library, p. 13). Meanwhile, in the early 1990s Bob embarked on his first formal “influencing role”. He was appointed as a GP advisor to the Fife Health Board. In this capacity, he developed an interest in acute services and enjoyed undertaking a survey of GPs’ views of such services.In 1960, at the age of 14, Bob Grant started to find it difficult to walk to school and his mother noticed he had developed a limp. Bob was told by the GP, who saw him on more than one occasion, that it was just growing pains. But the pains got worse and eventually, early in 1961, another partner in the practice helped his mother get an emergency appointment at the hospital. At the time Bob was told the result of his x-rays was “not good”, but it was only much later that he found out that it was a bone tumour he had had – a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in his thigh-bone (femur). That they might have the answer to his drinking problem never entered his head, but he thought it could do him no harm to study their philosophy. For the next two and one half years he attended their meetings. And got drunk regularly! Then one Saturday afternoon, Henrietta called Anne. Could they come over to meet a friend of hers who might help Bob. There was no shortage of specific information in early A.A. as to what the message was, how to carry it, and what to do with the newcomer. If they simply looked to the Book of Acts and the commentaries about it, they were well supplied. Anne Smith so suggested.