Can Patrick Swayze survive his hex diagnosis?

When someone is told that they have a terminal illness, and only a few weeks or months left to live, this can be a "hex" diagnosis, bad news sending them into a downward spiral of despair, rather than boosting them with positive support or advice giving hope of a possible recovery.

Some media reports have given Patrick Swayze has only five weeks to live - although officially his doctors have denied they had provided this time scale as part of his diagnosis.

So where did this information come from? Was it the work of a journalist who had done some research on pancreatic cancer and made a guesstimate of the likely outcome? Whatever the source, it was hardly helpful.

Patrick has now been pictured looking gaunt, with a cigarette in his mouth - which doesn't bode well. Regardless of whether his smoking is connected with his cancer, it is not a healthy habit.

So here's a plea to Patrick: quit smoking if you can, eat a healthy diet and stay positive, don't give up on life while there is still hope.