Hey, this is Josh Levine, the host of One Year. I hope you're enjoying our season on 1977.

This week's episode comes from our producer, Evan Chung. Here it is.

While I've been waiting to testify since this meeting opened, in this country, 200 people have died of cancer.

It was an emotional day in Austin when the Texas Senate Committee on Human Resources met on May 2,

1977. Over the next three hours, members of the crowd took turns at the microphone.

I had lost previously five members of my family to cancer and had seen them suffer.

And they tried everything, all of their chemotherapy and all of their high-powered poisons,

and it didn't stop it.

The witnesses talked about the fear that gripped them when they discovered they were ill.

I was diagnosed as having cancer of the breast. My doctor had given me a 50% chance of living.

And I could tell that he was kissing me goodbye. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to anybody.

But then they described how their desperation turned to hope when they learned of another option.

A chemical compound extracted from apricot pits and bitter almonds, known as laitriol.

On the tenth day of the leitral treatment, I got up out of bed one morning, and I walked to the restaurant,

I said, Patsy, my God, I'm not crippled.

Four weeks ago, my doctor gave me a clean bill of health.

If these people were cured and I'm one of them, then my goodness sakes, why not let the people

in this great state use this substance?

The people who testified that day had gone to Mexico for leitril treatments

because it wasn't approved for cancer therapy in the United States.

One by one, they pleaded with the senators to legalize leotril in Texas

so that others could be saved just like they were.

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