10 Chicorn Ave.,
Toronto.

Miss Ren� Caisse
The Cancer Clinic
Bracebridge,
Ontario.

My Dear Miss Caisse:
I am giving herewith particulars of my long and rather bad health history. Am arranging them in order according to the dates as it seems to me now that I try to set down the particulars that ever since I have grown up I have suffered growths in some part or other of my body. As a child I enjoyed splendid health and was really conscious of being unusually strong. I thoroughly enjoyed a tussle with my two brothers, both near my own age, and never remember any sickness to speak of until the first monthly periods appeared.
1910 At this time I was 14 years of age and a goitre appeared in my throat. From that time on I was never very well.
1931 At this time a condition appeared in my left breast which forced me to go to a doctor (Dr Isabella Wood). She told me she did not know what it was and to come back in a month's time. I was very frightened and went to see another doctor (Dr Charles B. Parker). He pronounced it "Chronic Mastitis" and gave me medicine to take internally and to apply to my breast. It relieved the condition for a time. He also discovered the goitre in my throat and advised an operation. I consented, and had it removed early in 1923.
1931 The mastitis continued to give me trouble, and by this time a "cystic mass" had formed, in the right breast a tumour as large as a hen's egg. In march of 1931 I went to five different doctors (Dr Charles B. Parker, Dr Shouldice, Dr Sullivan, Dr Robt. Gaby, Dr T. A. Robinson) all of whom agreed that there was nothing known to science which would clear up the condition. There was no alternative but to have both breastsremoved. I simply could not face it.
1935 At this time, and for some years prior I had a severe haemorrhage every month, until I was forced to go to a doctor. I went to the Women's College Hospital Clinic and was examined by Dr Helen Diack, and her co-worker Dr Barclay. I was quite surprised when they had me on the table for examination to see a lump as large as an ordinary grapefruit in my right side. They told me it was a fibroid tumour and would have to be removed at once. There was also a smaller long shaped growth in the left side close to the hip-bone. I asked Dr Diack particularly about this, as I was quite sure it was a very different growth to the other. She turned her head away and merely said "Well of course, it will have to come out too." Needless to say, by this time I was really sick.
1937 Early in the year a friend told me of the wonderful work being done in the Cancer Clinic at Bracebridge. Without any diagnosis or any letter to yourself, Miss Caisse, I came in a hurry. You told me that you had to have a written diagnosis from a medical doctor, and that I would have to undergo an examination by a doctor, who would be in the clinic the following week. This I did, and I have just lately (and by accident) found out that he considered my case too far gone altogether to respond to treatment. He did not examine my breasts or he would have found a small but well developed cancer at the top of the left breast. By this time it was all I could do to be up and around at all. I haemorrhaged so badly I thought I would die, and spent more and more time on the chesterfield or in bed and could lay down and sleep at any time of the day. My colour was a muddy yellow colour, hair thin and lifeless eyes - ordinarily blue - were grey and stoney looking. I simply couldn't stand up for any length of time as the feeling of weight and the weakness of the whole of the front of my body was unbearable. I did not suffer much pain, but occasionally a sharp needle-like stab would go through me around the growths. A movement of the bowels was frequently painful though not always. I have suffered from constipation all my life.
1938 And now for the happy ending: The growths have almost entirely disappeared, I have gained ten pounds, and I feel fine. I go to work every day in a very busy office, where the rest of the staff are unaware that there is anything wrong with me. Hours are from 8.30 to 5.30 and I get pretty tired at times especially when as at the end of the month I work an evening or two. Then on Sunday there is the long trip to Bracebridge and back. If only I could rest on Sundays I feel sure I would make even better progress. I am, however, deeply grateful for the treatments, and feel that I can never repay in money what they are worth to me. You have given me back my life Miss Caisse, but what means even more to me, I can confidently look forward to perfect health so that I will enjoy living.
I think I made myself clear from the foregoing how utterly futile operations would be in a case like mine. My earnest prayer every day is that this remedy may be made available to everyone who needs it.
Yours very truly

Mrs May Henderson


1960
In 1959 Dr Brusch wanted to see how well Nurse Caisse's cancer patients had fared long term. When he wrote to the Henderson family he found to his amazement that May was now 63 years old. Patient still living.


1977