cancer story writing sample

   It sounds like a fairy tale - A loved one is dying of cancer after all treatments have failed, a stranger comes to the home and offers a homemade elixir, and then everyone is healthy and happy.
   But to get to the fairy tale part, one must first go back to when Brian and Jackie Capers were told their son was going to die.
   "He was walking along beside us and leaning on me like he was being lazy and tired," Mrs. Capers said at their pleasant and modest Aledo home. "Later on, he just flat-out fainted."
   Days later Caleb Capers was diagnosed with an accelerated brain stem cancer called astrocytoma. The life-degenerating growth in the back of the three-year-old's head blocked fluids, hindered normal body functions and was spreading its roots deeper into the child's brain.
   "The doctors said we can let the tumor grow and watch what happens - see how slow our son dies - or try a new high radiation thing called gamma-knife," Mrs. Capers explained.
   The parents said some of the following brain operations - five in all - were experimental and last-ditch efforts to extend the child's life.
   Then came the staggering news that destroyed what little hope the family held.
   "This is after they did all the other stuff on him," the father said. "They said he had more - He had two tumors."
   The family was told the child would die soon after Christmas (1996) and he was medicated and released so he could live through the holidays and enjoy a last Christmas at home.
   Brian was not their normal son when he returned home. With much of his brain affected and conflicting medications pushing his life a month further, the child was almost out of his mind.
   "His brain was frying. He was seeing bugs crawling all over the wall and he had to have everything in a certain place. I just couldn't see him like that," Mrs. Capers said. "That's when we called the guy."
   A relative had seen a small classified ad offering possible help for cancer suffers, and the desperate but skeptical parents reluctantly called.

    He was a very simple man, the parents recalled, and he came to their home in an early model pickup truck. He put two bottles of clear liquid on the table with homemade labels and told the family his son had died of cancer before he was told of this alternative solution and he wanted them to try it on their child. He told the couple that in three days Caleb would be acting like a kid again.
   "I told him he was full of it," the mother said bluntly.
   The bottles contained hydrazine sulfate, a controversial mixture of elements with effectiveness that has been both praised and bufooned for 15 years.
   The man left instruction for doses to be taken with fruit juices over two weeks.
   "It must have tasted bad because we had to watch Caleb to make sure he took all of it," the father said.
   It worked.
   "Three days after giving my son hydrazine sulfate, he started bouncing off the wall like a normal boy," Mrs. Capers said. "He started playing with his brother - he was Caleb again."
   The father said he learned the elixir is illegal in the United States.
   Some articles written by hydrazine sulfate supporters offer a "Big Brother" speculation, suhrmising that a medicine which may be effective against various forms of cancer would tumble the nation's multi-billion dollar cancer industry.

   At this point, the parents are interrupted by a now 10-year-old Caleb as he bounces into the room, shadow boxing and kicking as he makes "pow-pow" noises with his mouth.
   "I like to exercise," the aspiring boxer said as he took more swings at an invisible opponent before leaping into his mother's lap.
   "It cost us nothing!" Mrs. Capers exclaimed as she squeezed the struggling bundle of energy. "He charged us nothing. He gave it to us for free. I feel bad that we can't find him now, but look, I have my son."
   Mr. Capers said the mysterious man returned once to check on Caleb, told the family to enjoy their life and left.
   Caleb still sees his doctor regularly and his cancer is not classified as being in remission. His parents report the tumor has reduced and doctors have scheduled him for less frequent visits.
   "They were totally against it back when we were giving him the stuff. They were very serious," the mother said of her doctors. "After that, they were like, 'Whatever you are doing, keep doing it.'"
   Mrs. Caleb reflected on what might have cause the drastic improvement of her son's health.
   "We can't honestly say if it was the new medicine or God's will," she said. "We were praying for him. We had others praying for him and we gave him this stuff. Now look at him."