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 Chonk.

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 2nd, 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 leotril.

On the 10th day of the leotril treatment, I got up out of bed one morning and I walked

to the restroom and I said, Patsy, my God, I'm not crippled.

...