Others' Experiences with Cancer

By: Joe Hing Kwok Chu

Rose Birds, the Former California Chief Justice

The former California Chief Justice Rose Bird told me that 25 years ago when she was diagnosed with cancer, her doctors told her that if she would not use chemotherapy and radiation therapy she would die within two years. She said she refused to use chemotherapy or radiation but she had more than twenty surgeries and used alternative healing methods including a proper diet. According to her fellow co-workers, every day she worked very hard late into the night, thinking she might not have enough time, before her death,  to do the work that needed to be done. Even when death was shadowing her, she still worked very hard for justice and humanity. Before she was the chief justice of California, she was the head of the labor department of California. It was through her hard work and persistence that she was able to get enough support to improve  the life of the farm laborers who  were working for less than a dollar an hour.  She did not die within two years as predicted by her doctors. She actually lived another twenty four years!  

During the final leg of her journey in life, I was introduced to her by a well known and respected acupuncturist, Dr. Jennifer Prongos of San Francisco, California,  to teach Rose qigong to control her discomfort and pain.  During the short period of time that I knew her, I found that she was a very likable and sincere person. She lived in a small and modest house in Palo Alto.  She was recalled by California voters because of her anti death penalty philosophy.^[1] Today, after she has gone, science with the help of DNA technology has proven that many convicted murderers were wrongly accused as killers. When I read,  in the San Francisco newspapers, about the scandals of L.A. police department where many of the convicted prisoners were framed by some bad apples of the L.A. police department, I thought of the death penalty stance of former chief justice Rose Bird. She was a hard worker, a fighter for justice and fighter for cancer sufferers. 

Now she is resting in peace.

Written on 06/26/2000

Photo obtained from her memorial service:

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[1] Later, I heard from one of the employees of her court that the recall was organized by some big business because the chief justice would not abide to their greedy demand.

My Aunt Mary

Bird's Nest Soup

According to some beliefs and experiences, birds' nest soup is beneficial to cancer sufferers. When I first moved to America in the early 60s, I brought with me two suitcases of birds' nests. An aunt, who was diagnosed with cancer at that time, cooked and ate all of the bird's nest over a period of two years. I also showed her how to practise qi allocation exercise (a type of qigong) to improve her health. She lived almost another twenty years, until her brother passed away; then her cancer came back again. I went to Asia to buy some more birds' nests but she refused to eat them after she knew they were so expensive. I think emotion affected her qi. She did not recover this time. 

Note: Because of the high prices that bird's nests can fetch, there are many imitation "birds' nests" in the market. It is buyers' beware.  Some are made from pigs' skin and even worse, some are made from plastic. Some years ago, some crooks were arrested in Taiwan for possessing many tons of birds' nests made from plastic.  There are elaborate laboratory techniques to test them. Some wet methods require larger samples (about 400 grams). Dry methods might only need a few grams. The testing can cost a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. It depends what you are looking for and it depends on the fees charged by different labs. My sister brought me one kilogram of the higher quality birds' nest for research purposes. (The 1999 cost of one kilogram is about US$4,500.)  Alethea Wong, a qigong student of mine, sent a sample to her brother,  Professor T.Y. Wong, head of the famous and respected biology department of Memphis University.  I learned a lot from his analysis of the sample.

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The experience of one person not necessarily will apply to another person. If you have cancer or if you think you have cancer, you should consult you health care provider.