Coretta Scott King suffered ovarian cancer at end

Feb 1, 2006, 20:31 GMT

Washington - Coretta Scott King, the widow of slain civil rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr., was seeking treatment in Mexico for fatal ovarian cancer when she died, the family said.

'She was considered terminal by physicians in the United States,' the family said in an e-mail.

King died late Monday, and funeral arrangements were not complete, news reports said Wednesday. The funeral director in charge of arrangements, however, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she wanted to be buried next to her husband at the King Center in Atlanta, founded to carry on the legacy of the first couple of civil rights.

King, who was 78, played a key role in mobilizing the civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements during the 1950s and 1960s. Her husband was assassinated in 1968 while he appeared at a civil rights rally.

King apparently travelled to Mexico last week to seek treatment at the Santa Monica Hospital in Rosarito Beach, a clinic some 25 kilometres south of San Diego, the Journal Constitution reported.

The clinic is run by Kurt W. Donsbach, who has no medical degree and has been investigated and charged by U.S. justice officials for practicing medicine without a license, the newspaper said. His therapy offers 'nontoxic' treatment of cancer, heart disease and multiple sclerosis.

In the e-mail, the family said that King was in Mexico for 'observation and consideration of treatment for ovarian cancer'.

'Mrs. king and her family wanted to explore other options,' the e- mail said.

The Santa Monica Hospital website says it treats diseases 'by and large considered incurable by the orthodox medical profession'.

'The major patient clientele is comprised of cancer patients who have been told that there is no more hope, all traditional therapies having failed,' the website said.

King suffered a minor stroke in the summer of 2005, but returned later to appear at public events, most recently during the weekend before the annual January holiday commemorating her late husband.