Cancer Cure Found

My sister, Lore, is in the second phase of treatment for stage three, invasive, lobular, breast cancer. This requires weekly visits to the Highline Medical Center's Oncology Clinc in Burien. She's doing well, although there have been those moments, sometimes days - when she wouldn't have said the same thing. This phase will last another couple months; then she'll under go six weeks of radiation treatment five days a week.

Last week, as I sat with her during her three-hour procedure, she told me about a news program which highlighted research being done at the University of Alberta, Canada, on a non-invasive cure for cancer. Since we had the time, I looked up what I could about the research on my iPhone. I found clinical trials are underway using dichloroacetate (DCA) which, according to the research findings, "causes regression in several cancers, including lung, breast, and brain tumors."

In a previous post, recalling our arrival home from Hawaii in February to a blizzard, I referred to my sister as "fearless." There have been times in the past few months, since her diagnosis, that she has exhibited fear, but with the discovery of news about a promising cure for cancer, her determination and resolve were sparked once again. In fact, she got just plain mad! She wants to know why more people aren't aware of this research. So after a sleepless night pondering what she could do about it, she wrote the following letter which I promised her I would share with others. She's sending it to friends, neighbors, politicians, and the University of Alberta. You can find more information about DCA by going to the official University of Alberta website http://www.dca.med.ualberta.ca/Home/index.cfm.

(Lore's letter)
Cancer Cure Found
September 6^th, 2011

            What a wonderful headline!! Why aren’t we seeing it? The recent discovery at the University of Alberta in Canada was funded by private donations. I’m not a scientist, so I won’t try to go into details about it. You can look those up. But I do know that it is a different way to treat cancer. It has been used successfully on human cancer patients. When given the new drug, it goes in and finds the cancer and kills it, leaving the good cells around the cancer unharmed. The patient may feel like they have a case of the flu for a day or two.

             My doctors tell me the mastectomy I had, the months of chemotherapy I am going through, and the weeks of radiation I will have to have, won’t kill my cancer. They hope it will go into remission. If it goes into remission, it could come back at any time.
             But this letter is not about me. It’s about all of the people in the world that die of cancer every year and the soaring cost of heath care. The drug companies want nothing to do with this discovery. They can’t claim they made this discovery and they can't patent it. They could loose research funding and if they manufactured and distributed it, they would make a fraction of what they make selling cancer drugs today. Oh, did I say it would be a lot cheaper? Can you imagine no cancer drives? Ha!
             If the greedy drug companies and maybe even greedy hospitals (they make a lot of money by treating cancer patients), causes this great discovery to be swept under the rug and not used worldwide, it would be the same as mass murder!!
             The cure is here and now! Please do what you can do to advance this wonderful break through. Thank you.

Sincerely,
LaReta Curtis

American Cancer Society Relay for Life: Celebration of Hope

Friday was a very special day. I got to spend it with wonderful people in my family: my sister, niece and grandniece. Lore had asked if I would like to go to LaConner to see Nicolette's and Tim's home (I've been wanting to do that for some time) and later in the evening, there was to be a special event in Oak Harbor to honor Nicolette. How could I say no!

We got to LaConner around 4 pm, just in time for me to take a few shots of the downtown. What photo opportunities! And we only had time to walk a few blocks.

Nicolette had gotten home from school, so we headed a few blocks to their home. She teaches art in Oak Harbor at Broadview Elementary School. Her husband, Tim, works for a number of the Indian tribes in the area on their environmental issues. He's also a craftsman extraordinaire. They are truly a talented couple and have turned a very old, not very attractive house into a beautiful and inviting home. The work is far from done, but during dinner we all toasted to the groundbreaking of a new building in the backyard that will house a woodworking shop for Tim on the ground floor and an art studio for Nicolette on the top floor. I'm looking forward to going back later this year to see the results.

About 8 pm, all but Tim and Lore headed for Oak Harbor. (My sis has just started her chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer and she didn't want to get chilled). We had to make one stop at the Deception Pass Bridge, which I hadn't seen in years, to take pictures. We didn't quite make the best light, but it was still beautiful. On the way, we'd picked up one of Nicolette's best friends, Anniece, who is also her hairdresser, and a cancer survivor herself.

Nicolette had been invited to see what some of her art students had done for her. We arrived at the American Cancer Society Relay for Life about 9 pm and were amazed at the number of people who had been walking and would be walking the track all night to raise money to fight cancer. What a surprise to see that 31 of Nicolette's students had made luminaries in her honor, as a cancer survivor.

Around 10 pm, all the luminaries were lit and Nicolette had the pleasure of lighting some of her own. What a wonderful experience to be able to participate in this celebration of recognition and hope. We all look forward to the future when we can celebrate for my sister, Nicolette's mom, as well. BonnieKingPhotography.com