From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedantin. This is my unsung hero, stories where one person reached

out to help another

in a time of need.

My unsung hero is the kind stranger

who helped me get to my grandfather's funeral.

And he just says, today you, tomorrow me.

And I never...

Thank you very much for changing my life.

Today's story comes from Ellen Butterfield. In August of 2001, my husband Chaz, had been fighting metastasized colon cancer for almost five years, which

is really kind of a record.

But we were running out of treatment options.

Somebody told us about a new chemotherapy drug

which was showing really good results in clinical trials.

So I arranged to have it shipped from a lab deep in Mexico where it was made to a pharmacy in Tijuana.

We drove from Los Angeles down to the Mexican border, we found the pharmacy and then we crossed back over the border again.

Two months later, his tumors were shrinking. We were, of course, ecstatic and we were ready to go back down there and get a second batch for a second course of treatment.

So, we again bought the drug, but now going back over the border was like a completely different experience because it was now a month after 9-11.

We had eight little bottles of white powder.

That was the chemotherapy.

And it looked a lot like anthrax.

So this time, before we could just cross back into the United States,

we were led into a big auditorium with a bunch of other people where there were a lot of guards wearing these tan uniforms and there were x-ray machines and none of that had been there two months before.

...