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verified by her trusted friend, Mary McPherson.
    Mary McPherson first met Rene when her mother was diagnosed with secondary cancer in 1935. Mary also collected signatures for the petitions gathered in support of Rene. Both she and her husband were successfully treated for cancer with Essiac in the 1940s. Always a loyal friend, she became a regular visitor at Rene’s home after her retirement in 1969.
    When the Homemakers magazine article about Essiac was published, life became hectic for Rene. All sorts of people started calling her and dropping by at her house. When Rene was expecting someone, she would call Mary who would come over and stand guard in the kitchen keeping an eye on things while the visitors were talking to Rene in the sitting room. Sometimes two or three people would visit together and one would keep Rene talking while the others took a quick look around the house, searching for the evidence that might reveal the identity of the herbs that she put into the tea.
    By then Rene trusted Mary enough to allow her to make up the tea with her. Rene would put the herbs into the water and Mary would do everything else, coming back the next morning to bottle it up. She visited Rene every day, quietly helping to ease the work load and no one ever realised she was doing it.
    Mary is a very important witness to Rene’s life and she has been badly represented in the media by people who have never met her and know nothing about her. One article referred to her as a servant, implying that Rene would never have left the recipe to someone like her. But if Rene hadn’t needed Mary, her friendship, her loyalty, her wisdom and her intelligence, Essiac may have just disappeared because she was the only person anyone could turn to for validity.
     
    It is important to note that Rene always specified that three of the constituent herbs in Essiac, Sheep sorrel, Slippery elm bark and Turkey rhubarb root should always be used in powdered form , while the remaining herb, Burdock root, should always be chopped into chunks the size of small peas (i.e. petits pois) Always question any mix claiming to be Essiac that doesn’t comply with this , (see Burdock p.21)
     
    GETTING READY
     
    Have all the equipment and ingredients to hand before you begin.
     
    Utensils check list :
    You will need one each of the following:
     
    • Large cooking pot made from either unchipped enamel (UK), granite (USA/Canada), heatproof glass, or, failing all else, a stainless steel pot with a well-fitting lid. (We prefer to use enamel/granite).
    • Stainless steel sieve
    • Large heat-proof glass measuring jug.
    • Stainless steel spoon for stirring.
    • Measuring jug or cup indicating fluid ounces and millilitres.
    • Glass containers for storing the tea — i.e. bottles with screw-top lids or preserving jars with new rubber seals.
    • Accurate metric weighing scales.
    • Enamel/stainless steel funnel (to prevent spillage when bottling the tea).
     
    It is preferable, but not imperative, to keep one pan exclusively for making Essiac. Certainly when you are starting to make it, use whatever you have available at the time — but not an aluminium pan, as the metal may be leached into the liquid during the making. It is true that Rene used an aluminium pot when she first started making Essiac, before she became aware of the adverse effects of aluminium — she switched to an enamel pan in the 1970s.
    The water you use for making Essiac tea should be as pure as possible. Do not use tap water. Buy bottled, fluoride-free water with the lowest sodium content available, or use still spring water. Some people prefer distilled water.
    There are still places on this planet where the water can be considered pure. Iceland is one of them. The tap water in Europe, Canada and the United States is subject to chlorination and sometimes to fluoridation which cannot be wholly removed by filtering.
    Initially Rene used the local tap water to make the formula but, by the