Save the Rain Forest, Save Your Life
Monday, April 26, 2010
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A Germantown family recently visited Washington, D.C., to meet with Tennessee Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker to urge them to support efforts to protect ecosystems around the world that may hold the key to cures for diabetes, HIV and cancer. Germantown grandmother Julie Whitehurst thanks her lucky stars, cancer researchers and the Pacific yew tree for the cancer drug, Taxol, that has allowed her to watch her granddaughter grow up.
"So many women now today are going into remission and are being cancer-free, and that drug has been fantastic."
Whitehurst's daughter, Teri Morin, is thankful both for the Taxol that saved her mother's life and a cancer drug derived from the rosy periwinkle that saved her daughter, Isabelle, from leukemia at the age of three.
"The success rate was four percent. Over the years, we're up to...I believe it's over 90 percent right now."
Isabelle continues to thrive and hopes everyone gets the message that saving the rainforest can save your life.
"Don't cut the trees, it's bad for the environment."
According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, one in three Americans deal with a chronic disease every day, and many find relief from pharmaceuticals derived from natural compounds.
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