Nature: Me, You, and All of Us

The outdoors is my passion and a big source of my joy. Much of what I love -- trees, forests, mountains, blue skies, bird song and the birds that produce them (props to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology!!), the four seasons, sunshine, and visible stars at night -- are all part of Nature. I consider myself a conservationist, and in the debate on whether humans are part of or apart from nature, I fall squarely into the former camp. I believe we all need to recognize that we're as dependent on nature as we are deleterious to it. To not realize this is to only lead to more harmful circumstances for generations ahead of us.

Considering I have no children to leave this Earth to, perhaps I could consider this a futile discussion to be having. But let me tell you a little story.

In 1962, before I was even born, researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture were contracted by the National Cancer Institute to find natural products that might cure cancer (NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health). Among the products these researchers harvested was the bark of the Pacific yew tree. It is native to North America, found from Alaska to California. For many years, this tree was seen as an impediment to the much larger timber that was harvested for everything from ship building (the early European settlers sought viable lumber supplies after denuding their own forests and saw the New World as a bonanza) to paper milling. It's not a particularly attractive tree. Many stands of Pacific yew were indiscriminately cut down.

In 1964, researchers discovered that extracts from this Pacific yew bark contained cytotoxic - cancer-fighting - properties. The pure form of the extract was isolated several years later and named paclitaxel. Almost a decade later in 1977, the NCI could confirm through experiments in mice, that paclitaxel successfully battled cancer tumors. It was selected as a candidate compound for further clinical development. While results continued to show efficacy, the problem lay in the production of enough paclitaxel to meet clinical trial - and future commercial - demands.

Other challenges had to be overcome as well, but finally in 1984, the paclitaxel drug Taxol clinical trial was begun on humans. In December 1992, the FDA approved Taxol for the treatment for ovarian cancer, and in 1994 for use against advanced breast cancer. In the years since, Taxol has been approved for early stage breast cancers, for use in neoadjuvant regiments (pre-surgery, like mine), and for the most aggressive forms of breast cancer like Triple Negative and Inflammatory, both of which I had. It's been a very successful cancer-fighting drug for almost 30 years now.

In other words, I literally owe my life now, in part, to a tree that the lumber industry readily disposed of.

Trees are not just life-givers to breast and ovarian cancer survivors. All types of trees house birds, butterflies, dozens of kinds of insects, opossums, raccoons, and in the wild, dozens more animals. These creatures, as well as the trees, all deserve their best chance at a full life, just as I did.

Trees inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. They provide shade to keep the land cool. They help trap and filter water. They are fun for kids to climb and create interesting trails for us all to hike and bike. It's been proven that time outdoors in nature helps our mental well-being.

These were my reasons enough to support conservation even before my diagnosis. But now, I'm more convinced than ever that I need to do whatever I can to help preserve trees and nature. Had those Pacific yew trees all been hewed prior to the NCI researchers finding it, I may not even be writing to you today.

To me, conservation means that we need to respect and value Nature and what it means to every living thing. To me, we cannot possibly be apart from Nature.

So I encourage you to share this Taxol story with other breast and ovarian cancer survivors (or anyone else you know who might want to have this information). It doesn't always take much to impact hearts and minds (and, most of all, our bodies).

This post originally appeared on my CaringBridge, January 7, 2023