The Story of Essiac Tea below is for the benefit of anyone interested. On a fateful day in 1922 Canadian nurse Rene Caisse happened to notice some scar tissue on the breast of an elderly woman. The woman said that doctors had diagnosed her with breast cancer years before. However, the woman didn't want to risk surgery nor did she have the money for it. As luck would have it, she had met an old Indian medicine man who told her that he could cure her cancer with an herbal tea. The woman took the medicine man's advice, and consequently she was still alive nearly thirty years later to pass on this herbal remedy to Nurse Caisse. About a year later, Rene Caisse was walking beside a retired doctor who pointed to a common weed and stated: "Nurse Caisse, if people would use this weed there would be little cancer in the world." Rene later stated: "He told me the name of the plant. It was one of the herbs my patient named as an ingredient of the Indian medicine man's tea!" The "weed" was sheep sorrel. In 1924 she decided to test the tea on her aunt who had cancer of the stomach and was given about six months to live. Her aunt lived for another 21 years, cancer free. Rene Caisse (pronounced "Reen Case") later gave the tea to her 72-year old mother who was diagnosed with inoperable cancer of the liver, with only days to live. Her mother recovered and lived without cancer for another 18 years. In the ensuing years Nurse Caisse refined and perfected the original "medicine man's" formula. She tested various herbal combinations on laboratory mice and on human cancer patients. She eventually reduced the tea to four herbs: burdock root, sheep sorrel, slippery elm and turkey rhubarb. She called the formula Essiac, which is her surname spelled backwards. Rene Caisse devoted over fifty years of her life to treating thousands of cancer patients with Essiac. So effective were her free treatments that in 1938 her supporters gathered 55,000 signatures for a petition to present to the Ontario legislature to "authorise Rene Caisse to practice medicine in the Province of Ontario in the treatment of cancer and conditions therein". Unfortunately, due to the machinations of the Canadian Medical Association, the bill failed to pass by just three votes. WHAT DID DOCTORS SAY ABOUT RENE CAISSE'S TEA? Rene Caisse operated her cancer clinic under the supervision and observation of a number of doctors. Based on what those doctors saw with their own eyes, eight of them signed a petition to the Department of National Health and Welfare at Ottawa, asking that Nurse Caisse be given facilities to do independent research on her discovery. Their petition, dated at Toronto on October 27, 1926, read as follows: To Whom It May Concern: "We the undersigned believe that the 'Treatment for Cancer' given by Nurse R.M. Caisse can do no harm and that it relieves pain, will reduce the enlargement and will prolong life in hopeless cases. To the best of our knowledge, she has not been given a case to treat until everything in medical and surgical science has been tried without effect and even then she was able to show remarkable beneficial results on those cases at that late stage. "We would be interested to see her given an opportunity to prove her work in a large way. To the best of our knowledge she has treated all cases free of any charge and has been carrying on this work over the period of the past two years." Initially, Rene was not aware of the control that the medical/pharmaceutical establishment had over governments. After the petition was delivered to the National Health and Welfare Department, she was continually threatened with arrest until she finally withdrew from public view. Unlike Nurse Caisse, the medical establishment was more interested in making money than in helping people. Essiac was cheap. It could cut into the lucrative profits from radiation, chemotherapy and surgery--treatments that often did more harm than good. Essiac is non-toxic. Rene said, "Chemotherapy should be a criminal offense." The story of Rene Caisse's struggle to make Essiac an official cancer treatment was told by Dr. Gary Glum in his book CALLING OF AN ANGEL: ESSIAC, NATURE'S CURE FOR CANCER. In a telephone conversation Dr. Glum stated that people who take Essiac on a regular, preventive basis do not get cancer. Dr. Glum interviewed JFK's personal physician, Dr. Charles Brusch, who stated: "I know Essiac has curing potential. It can lessen the condition of the individual, control it, and it can cure it." Dr. Ralph Moss was appointed to the Cancer Advisory Panel that evaluates alternative cancer therapies for the government. On his web site and in his book CANCER THERAPY, Dr. Moss points out that each of the herbs in Essiac has been scientifically shown to contain anticancer substances. In his "Cancer Chronicles" [www.ralphmoss.com/essiac], Dr. Moss notes Essiac's rising popularity by comparing Essiac's low cost to a $150,000 bone marrow transplant. ESSIAC--MORE THAN JUST A CANCER TREATMENT Dr.Frederick Banting, the co-discoverer of insulin became interested in Essiac and even offered Nurse Caisse research facilities to test it. According to Rene, Dr. Banting stated that "Essiac must actuate the pancreatic gland into normal functioning". Even today diabetics are using Essiac to improve their condition and many have gone off insulin entirely.

chenyu, you are a very insightfull person. I am not a cancer survivor and hope that I never have to experience the disease. But as a person who at the ripe age of 24 had to care for her grandmother (who was only 57) when she lost her second battle with the disease I want to give you another side. Nothing I am saying is meant to offend you just offer a little to your statements. I agree that it is important to strengthen the bodys immune system. I also agree that chemotherapy is not a selective treatment. It does not know the difference between healthy cells and cancerous cells and it makes you sick. Many times my grandma said she didnt know what was worse, the treatment or the cure. But doctors are learning how to pinpoint both chemo and radiation to protect the healthy cells. I do not agree that treatment is a blind experiment. While most all treatments may start out that way (or even as an accident) we learn and add to what is learned. There are some cancers that can be cured in some patients with no reaccurance. You stated that treatment cant prolong a patients life and excelerates their death. I have to disagree and I feel I have to give a summery of my experiance with my grandmother for you to understand what I am saying. Sorry if this gets long. My grandmother got her first tumor at around 35. It was benign. When another formed 10 years later she thought nothing of it. Unfortunitly, she also didnt go to the doctor till it started to bother her (about 6 months after she noticed the tumor coming back. That time it was malignent. Her cancer was sarcoma. It is a hard tissue tumor that is like bone. They did chemo to shrink the tumor and then removed it. Along with most of the bone in her arm and shoulder (It had grown into her bones and could not be seperated. That was replaced with rods and "hinges". She had 13 other small tumors that were inactive. They could only keep an eye on to see if they started growing. She was not a sickly person before the cancer or after. Cancer was the only thing she ever suffered from. When 2 of the remaining tumors started growing they could not be removed because of location (one behind each lung). She went through radiation that was designed to zero in on the tumor and protect the surrounding tissue and cells. Unfortunitly this time the sarcoma was growing so fast that they could not keep it contained. Her second battle with the disease lasted 2 years. If they could have removed those tumors she would have survived. The cancer is not what caused her death in the end, it was the inability to breath because of the compression on her lungs. If my grandmother had not had medical treatment for the 2nd tumor and had it removed she would have died within 6 months due to the aggresive growth of the tumor. Yes, the cancer got her in the end but she also got another 10 years of life and got to enjoy her first grandaughter before she got sick. So treatment did prolong her life not accelerate her death. Even if she were to stay in a protected environment free from polution (with no treatment) she would have died in 6 months, not 10 years. I believe an open mind is crucial in fighting any disease. And while I feel those that rely on doctors should be openminded about "natural" remedies, I also feel that those who rely on "natural" remedies should use that same openmindedness in regards to "medical" remedies. Each has their stronger points. Carey

I'm sorry to hear about your Mom also. I think what you are doing for her now with a new rose is great. I think after you read all the suggestions you will get you might end up putting in a small rose bed instead of just one rose:) You might think about the rose 'What a Peach' (link below). Back when I had some self control I bought this rose because it was on sale only and came home, planted it and really had no expectations. It has become the most constant bloomer in the yard with its very cheerful and pretty much always present blooms. Very clean grower. The only thing about it for your Mom's situation is the blooms blow fast and have no scent. The flowers are small but abundant. I love it and can show you some of my pictures from the summer if you're interested. Hope this helps and best wishes for you and your Mom. Kate Here is a link that might be useful: What a Peach

haha, yes, sounds like a mutation, a 'normal' mutation. We have a clematis that does this kind of thing, with some petals deciding they prefer to be leaves and such things. I believe it's very common in Clematis. Never seen it in a water lilly Andy, but my guess is it's a mutation in only that flowerhead and when it dies the mutation will die with it. That's not to say it won't happen again!