Sask. Mtis man uses traditional medicines to treat terminal cancer

A Mtis man who opted to useIndigenous therapies for histerminal cancer instead of chemotherapy was initially turned down for followup care by a specialist, but the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency is now encouraging specialists to accept patients using traditional practices.

It all started when 61-year-old Ric Richardson, a business owner anduniversity student in the northern Saskatchewan village of Green Lake, was diagnosedbya Saskatoon oncologistinFebruary with Stage 4 lung cancer.

Richardson, who is also the village's mayor,wastold he could begin chemotherapy in two weeks, but didn't.

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We live in our medicine cabinet it's called the northern boreal forest.- Ric Richardson

He chose not to because he said it would have meant living the final chapter of his life suffering from side-effects and giving up time with his family as well as his job resultshe called "unacceptable."

"With a terminal diagnosis, I would have thought that the quality of my remaining life should be the prime consideration."

Power of traditional knowledge

Richardson,whose wife, Rose, is a Mtis medicine woman, said he's well versed withthe healing power of traditional Indigenous knowledge and opted to be treated using those practices instead.

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"We live in our medicine cabinet it's called the northern boreal forest," he said.

Richardson's cancer-fighting regimen focuses on drinkingteas made from plants in the region, including dandelion root and balsam fir.

He alsoreceives help from people in medicine circles elsewhere in the province, as well as in Alberta and in Haida Gwaii,B.C., where his cousins, who are also cancer survivors, send him medicinesmade by a local medicine man.

Richardson said thatwhen he initially told the specialist he wantedto be treated the traditional way, the doctor interpreted that to mean he was refusing treatment.

Specialist refused followup care

In March, Richardson was called to see a different oncologist, who advised Richardson to consider radiation.

Richardson said he told the oncologist the plan was to stick with traditional medicines. Richardson's request that the specialist still monitor the spread of the disease was turned down.

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"He told me that that wasn't possible because there were many people who wanted their serviceand that was the ones that they would focus on,"he said.

"I was actually offended."

Richardson said he believes thatrefusal infringedupon his rights as an Indigenous person to use traditional medicines, a principle outlined inArticle 24 of theUnited Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"For so many generations, aboriginal traditional knowledge has either been discounted or demonized," Richardson said.

"There's many elders who have long experienced that doing anything traditionally native was considered evil or so had to be done in secret or not at all."

Better integration needed

After that exchange, Richardson complained tothe Saskatchewan Cancer Agency. Hiscase endedup on thedesk of the vice-president of care services, Corey Miller.

"We should be following up all of our patients on progress and treatment, how they're doing, whether they'retaking our treatment or others, but it isn't alwaysgoing to be done by the specialist," he said.

Miller said the agency isnow working with oncologists so those seeking traditional treatments can be better supported.

"Ric'snot refusing treatment Ricis taking the treatment that he's choosing in his own care path to take," Miller said.

It has also invited Richardson to participate in a research project into traditional medicines, even organizing a meeting of caregivers to discuss the issue.

Living example

The agency arranged for Richardson to meet with a third oncologist, planningit so he could have a CT scan, blood work and oncological determination done on the same day insteadof the northern Saskatchewanresident having to make multiple trips for appointments in Saskatoon.

During that June 1 appointment, Richardson got some good news: The tumours had shrunk.

"Obviously we're on the right track and things are working well," he said.

"My energy level is high, I'm able to function in all of the aspects of my life, and so we are continuing to use the traditional route."

By being a living example of how traditional Indigenous medicines can be integratedinto the modernsystem, Richardson said,"It gives me the opportunity to effect change that will help others."