I would call my story Wonderful Miraculous Cure. My tree story is that a little over nine years ago I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, which is, you know, diagnosis of cancer is awful and shocking. And so I have a, my oncologist at the time was just an amazing woman and part of her philosophy of treatment, I mean certainly we did surgery and chemotherapy, but part of her philosophy of treatment was to be out in nature. And it wasn't just her philosophy, there was research to support that evidently people who spend time in nature have a better survival rate for cancer. So my wife and I were pretty intentional about getting out in nature as much as possible, especially during treatment, to counteract the effects of treatment.
So we used to come to The Morton Arboretum quite a bit during that time because it's just such a beautiful place. And so today as I was walking, nine and some, nine years and some months later, really healthy and surviving really well, I went on the conifer walk, which is one of my favorites and one that we would go on a lot when I was in treatment because sometimes I couldn't walk that far so it was really manageable. And there was the Pacific yew, the Pacific yew tree, and the fact that my miracle drug, Taxol, comes from the Pacific yew tree. And it was just an amazing reminder on a beautiful day of how grateful I am for the tree, my tree, the Pacific yew tree, for giving me such an amazing medicine and many other women such an amazing medicine. But also the gift of the Arboretum as a place that's been a special healing place for me in my journey.
