The Story of Rene Caisse Video

[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Conventional cancer therapies are producing cures in certain cancers. Other cancer conditions cannot yet be cured. There is a limit to how much therapy the body can take. Beyond this point, there is no hope. The conventional forms of therapy have limitations. This fact drives people to become radically involved in an urgent search for additional forms of cancer treatment. I am making this film because I know that Essiac, a drug developed over the last 50 years by Miss Rene Caisse, can benefit the body and decrease pain while a patient undergoes conventional therapy. I know that Essiac provides a person hope for a cure when the medical profession has done all it can. I don't see it's a miracle cure 100% for everybody. But if it helps just one out of 100, by God, we should use it. It'll at least match what the FDA is doing. NARRATOR: Essiac is not in use. The law states that Essiac must prove itself to be non-toxic and it must prove itself to be of benefit. 15 of our terminally ill patients who are contributors to our foundation for alternative cancer therapies here in the metro Detroit area brought suit against Joseph Califano of Health Education and Welfare to permit them to have Essiac. They're asking to be given the right to use Essiac since orthodox medicine no longer has any answers for them. We just thank Rene Caisse for the work she's done for over the 50 years that she's been working with Essiac. And we say now that we know here in the States about it. We're going to continue the fight and support her because we want it. You can't burn a cancer out of a body with radiation. You can't poison it out of the body without poisoning the body as well. And I feel that nature holds the answer-- the only answer for cancer patients. And as such, we should have it. Our constitutional rights at the moment are being denied to us. And it shouldn't even come down to a court hearing. It should be a matter of fact that we have what we want for our bodies, and not have to fight for it in this manner. In fact, as it's well known in the state of California, the state legislature actually made it a felony for a doctor to use any of the other-- than the accepted methods of treatment for cancer. And they named them in the legislation, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and cobalt. And when doctors are handed like this and their very livelihood is threatened, they're not going to be anxious to step out of line. Well, I think it should be my privilege. If I won't have to take Essiac or whatever it could be that might make me live a little longer, I think that should be my privilege. I think I should have what I want to do instead of them telling me that I'm going to die. SPEAKER 1: Did they do it? Yes, the doctor told me that under the treatment that I was taking. When my body couldn't take it no longer, there was nothing he could do. I said, in other words, just get in the box, dig the hole, and wait. He said, yes. That was a very word you used to give me. I'm too young to get in the box yet, I think. SPEAKER 1: So you Essiac? I want Essiac. We have many doctors on our side. We have many doctors in our group with cancer. And they want the Essiac just as badly as we do. My name is Andy Barrie. I am with CFRB radio. And I have been asked, in a sense, I think, to referee a discussion that has become-- NARRATOR: At a public forum held in Toronto, a medical panel presented their views on Essiac. The public was informed that Essiac is of no value as a cancer therapy. This opinion was based on recent clinical testing. One of the two doctors involved was Dr. David Wald. The reason why I investigated Essiac because I thought from the information that I had available that it was an effective therapy for cancer. SPEAKER 2: You told me it was. Well, I told you it was not from the information that I've got. I qualified my statement at the end by saying that I tried to contact Dr. Bruce. I have tried to get the resparent corporation to provide data. I have asked all the lay people in contact with Essiac to provide data on patients who have been treated so that we could analyze every bit of information. All I want is the truth. I don't say anything else. And that was the spirit with which I entered into it. SPEAKER 2: What you are stating, then, that the federal government of Canada has taken your tests as gospel. Nobody's taken my test as anything. I have cancer from head to toe in the bone. You're going to try and tell me that if I think there's something that's going to give me a little bit of life, that I'm not going to try it? [APPLAUSE] I'm deadly sick with chemotherapy. As they've told me they thought it would help me tumors. But now, it's doing nothing for my bone. It's still progressing. So I'd sooner die with the disease than have the chemo. Madame, I wish with all my heart that we could do more for you. This is very sincere. I wish we could. But unfortunately, we are still limited. Believe me, if we were curing 100% of cancer patients, we wouldn't be having this meeting here tonight. But if chemo was-- Just let me finish. You've had quite a bit to say, [INAUDIBLE].. Sorry. But I do want to add, at the same time, if we release Laetrile and Essiac and Krobicin and [INAUDIBLE] treatments and AnABlast and so on, I can give you a very long list. You will have a very wide choice. Then when there is something effective, how will you know which to choose from? Well, I don't have that much time. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: In a small town in northern Ontario, the year 1922, Rene Caisse first learned of a cancer remedy, which she termed Essiac. Oh, [INAUDIBLE] this morning. RENE CAISSE: Well, I was head nurse at the Sisters of Providence Hospital at [INAUDIBLE].. And I saw a patient that had a scarred breast. She was 81 years old and she told me that 30 years before that, she had developed cancer. And the Indians cured her, at least, they told her herbs that were beneficial. If it hadn't been for my mother's only sister becoming ill with cancer, I would never have thought of doing anything but nursing. I gave up my position [AUDIO OUT] I gave up my position at the hospital. And went down and I asked Dr. Auro Fisher, who later was Dean of the University of Toronto, if he wouldn't watch over her if I would try some of these herbs. And he said he would. And it took quite a while, but she got better. And she lived for 21 years. In about 1943, I was diagnosed in Toronto General Hospital as having a growth in the bowel, which was inoperable. And that was in January. And my husband was told that when the snow was gone, I would probably be gone with it. So through friends, I was directed to Miss Caisse. And I came to her and had treatments from her for practically three years and felt I was cured. And I've had no return of it since. Dr. McGinnis heard about me in Toronto. He was a member of parliament. And he came back and he said, I want you to treat a patient for me. And I said, no, I'm not treating any patients up here. He said, oh yes you are. He said, this one has diabetes and cancer of the bowel. And he said, I'm using insulin for the diabetic condition. And he said, I want Essiac for the cancer. And I said, I'm not mixing them. I won't do it. So I wouldn't do it. So he said, tell you what we do. We'll take away the insulin and use Essiac. And if the diabetic condition worsens, we will go back to the insulin and take away the other. So on those terms, I consented to do it. But to our surprise, the diabetic condition cleared up before the cancer did. So he kept case notes. And he said, we'll go down and see Dr. Banting about this. And that's what interested Dr. Banting, see, was the fact that it had worked on diabetes. I didn't know it would. Neither did Dr. McGinnis. He didn't know it, either. Thank God Essiac a last minute cured me and all this was repaired and went back. And just I am a normal man again who eat well, who drink well, and sleep well. And no more burning in my body. Dr. Auro Bastita of Bracebridge sent me a patient cancer of the bowel, [INAUDIBLE]. And I cured him. So Dr. Bastita went before the town council and mayor and persuaded them to give me a building that had-- they had taken for taxes as a clinic. That I had made a great discovery and that I should be supported in my own hometown. So they persuaded me to go and set up the clinic where I treated for 8 and 1/2 years. Her clinic would be full every time we were there. And there were people came in ambulances who were not able to come in for treatment. She would have to go out and administer the medicine in the ambulance. Then, as time went on, you-- we watched these people be able to walk in. And finally, they were driving their own car to get Essiac. I treated from 3 to 600 patients a week. And the only way they would allow me to do this was free of charge. And I had to have a doctor's diagnosis for every case I treated. So we brought the diagnosis to nurse Caisse. And I took treatment from her every week for about a year. And I have no cancer today. Well, Dr. Banting wanted me to work with him, but he was doing animal research, see. At the time, he was working on chickens, to tell you the truth. But they wanted me to close my clinic and just do animal research. And with 4 to 600 patients depending upon me for treatment, I couldn't leave them and go and work on the animals. So I refused his offer, though I was very flattered by it, I must say. Because he was a very wonderful doctor. NARRATOR: Not only did Rene turn down the Banting offer, she also turned down, in her cautious wary manner, a group of American businessmen who offered her $1 million to exploit her formula. Dr. Leo Bernardo, he was a cancer surgeon. And he used to go to Vienna every year for two months-- special surgery. And he came to my clinic. And there were about 50 patients waiting. And he said, do you think you have a cure for cancer? I said, I'm way beyond thinking, I know. And he said, I don't believe it. I said, that's your privilege. So he asked if he could talk to the patients and I told him yes. And he got so interested, then, he-- I had five other doctors in the-- examining patients. And he asked if he could go in with them and examine patients and I told him he could. So then, he told me, he said, you have it. But he was rougher than that. He was a big Black fella. He said, but the medical profession will never let you do this to us. So he asked if he could talk to the patients and I told him yes. And he got so interested, then, he-- I had five other doctors in the-- examining patients. And he asked if he could go in with them and examine patients and I told him he could. So then, he told me, he said, you have it. But he was rougher than that. He was a big Black fella. He said, but the medical profession will never let you do this to us. NARRATOR: Rene Caisse was called before the legislature in 1938 to determine Essiac's legal status. There are signatures of people who supported my work when I went before the legislature. I was trying to legalize my treatment. And the patients went out and got this petition signed. 55,000 names on it. And I went before the legislature and I lost out by three votes. NARRATOR: Public outcry forced the establishment of a cancer commission to investigate herbal remedies. Essiac was the only one to have benefit admitted. The greatest majority of Rene's evidence was rejected. You see, they said, the doctors all made a mistaken diagnosis. That that's why the patients thought they were cured. And the doctors on the strength of that refused to give a diagnosis anymore because what was the use of them giving a diagnosis and the cancer commission disputing it. Saying that they were all mistaken diagnosis. It was impossible. Well, then, it got that patients would come to me begging for treatments. And they'd say, well, you cured my mother or you cured my father, brother, what-- and they begged me to treat them. I kept on my clinic as long as I could until they stopped the doctors from giving a diagnosis. And then, I had to stop. And it's a sad thing when somebody comes and they have somebody that is ill with cancer and the medical profession can do nothing for them. And they beg of me to treat them. It's a very sad thing to turn them away. And I had a nervous breakdown over that. So I really had to stop. I don't see how they can refrain from recognizing it. Because if you have the proof, you have the diagnosis from the doctor, you have the pathological findings. And you find you have the living patient to show that they are still alive after the medical profession has given them up. And yet, they refused to admit that it is a cure. I have to grind them. I used to get them already ground wholesale. But I can't get it now. So I had to buy a grinder and grind myself. But I prepare everything myself. All the herbs and the way it's done. And then, I give it to the doctors to use. I can't use it myself. I'm not allowed to. In fact, I'm still under police protection. I didn't work with-- for 50 years with it not to know how to use it and how to make it and what strength to give and what not to give and so on. Even in my early days, people would come in and they'd say, oh, did you read in the paper that so and so's found a cure for cancer? I'd say, more power to them. If they can cure cancer, let them go to it. There's lots of cancer to cure. I never felt any resentment for anybody that would try-- even try to cure cancer. [INAUDIBLE] The [INAUDIBLE] Commission advertised in the papers that it was an untested treatment. That was when I got the offer to go to Boston. NARRATOR: After supervised clinical testing in Toronto and Chicago, Rene consented with feelings of redundancy to further test in Boston. She worked alongside 18 doctors, one of them being Dr. Charles Brush. About 20 years ago, 1958, here in this laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the [INAUDIBLE] Medical Center, Dr. McClure, an outstanding researcher and internist gastroenterologist, undertake or undertook to study the effects of a drug or an herb called Essiac. This herb has been brought down here from Canada by Miss Caisse what showed documentary evidence that it had helped many people. Our work here, we showed and we found, to our benefits and to the benefit of an individual, that it was non-toxic and did have effects and help in the treatment of cancer. And as a result of this, we recommend to Miss Caisse that she go and further follow its research in a outstanding clinic that specializes in cancers has-- And further follow its research in a outstanding clinic that specializes in cancers has Sloan-Kettering laboratory. NARRATOR: The Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York is one of the foremost cancer centers in the United States. The Vice President and Associate Director is Dr. Chester Stock. The results that I reported to Rene Caisse were studies in sarcoma 180 in the mice, in which we were looking not only for possible primary inhibition of the tumor, which did not occur, but also for regressions. And there was a very small percentage and a small group of regressions. But we never had the opportunity to confirm this and to see whether we could obtain better results. It's not available because, as I say, the government felt that it's toxic. It has to be proved that it's not toxic. At the dose levels that we used at the Sloan-Kettering Institute, we did not see any toxicity. I think if we had gone to higher doses, we very likely would have seen toxicity. But at the doses we employed, we did not see toxicity. The emotional benefit is that if an individual comes in and he finds out that his pain is lessened or you find that he's putting on a little weight or finds out he's had a better appetite and find out that other people have been helped, he feels that he is on the road of getting somewhere. So he gets a better frame of mind, the family does with him, and his friends that something is being done. I think we've taken the position that we still need better methods of treatment. Better drugs. That we don't have enough information yet on just how to find the best drug. And therefore, we've, through the years, tried to maintain a very open attitude about such materials and to test them. And sometimes, we do find activity when we don't expect to find it. I feel that if Essiac were used in conjunction with any therapy that is now being used, that would have a great deal more merit and I know it would help a lot of people. NARRATOR: Ex-patients and supporters arrived in Bracebridge, Ontario. They came to help Rene celebrate her 90th birthday. They have experienced the benefits of Essiac. Many of the people here feel they owe their life to Rene. [APPLAUSE] Remember the two ladies up here that day in the house? She doesn't call me. [INAUDIBLE] Oh. [INAUDIBLE] They kept telling me that you might be here. Outstanding contribution to all beings, of all people. Please accept my very best wishes for your help. [INAUDIBLE] Very nice. Well, this is a tremendous day for you. In going over Essiac, we find a much higher percentage. We find people that are sick and unable to eat, down mentally and physically, pick up under this drug. [APPLAUSE] Well, look, I have given my life for it. I couldn't give any more than that. God's been good to let me live this long to see it used and used by people. If I had listened to the medical world, I would have distributed it to animals. But I wanted it for human beings. I wanted them to have the benefit of it. So I fought for that for 40 years. That's a long time. [MUSIC PLAYING]