My website was going full steam, with traffic increasing daily. Gohiking had recently reached 1,000.000 individual visitors, which is not bad for a 1600-page site created by a self-taught webmaster. I must say I have enjoyed building the site and very much like the fact that there is no advertising on its pages.
I was also taking groups of people out on nature walks. They could sign up for walks to learn about mushrooms, medicinal plants or forest ecology. I enjoyed these walks and sharing my knowledge about the wilderness with others. My wife, Georgina, would come along as a photographer on the hikes and help the elders who would join us. These walks were first initiated under the auspices of the North Island Meti Society. Over the years, I have been involved with this society on many projects.
My wife and I started a business that involved taking people on guided tours to many locations on the island, depending on what they were looking to see. Sometimes they wanted to see our west coast beaches, or perhaps chase waterfalls. Some trips took us out caving, while other journeys led us to remote townships like Bamfield or Zeballos. These trips were always one-day trips; we would often leave before daylight and return after dark. I was the driver and guide, while Gina would entertain our guests during the tours.
Around this time, different production companies discovered gohiking online as well as through our listing on the North Island Film Commission. They began to hire me to do photo shoots of various island areas to help them find locations for movies and shows. The money proved quite lucrative, and as I was always up for any adventures involving the outdoors, I jumped at all opportunities to be involved. So between the nature walks, guided tours, and working for these production companies, life was good.
One production company began to use me not just for finding locations but also for my knowledge of local history. Eventually, they hired me as a research contractor. I hired my son, Robert, to work alongside me. One project had us working on researching lost Spanish gold mines on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Not only would we spend time looking for various old mines and locations, but we also pored over old documents and books in libraries and museums, searching for any tidbit of information on ship manifests to see where the gold was being mined and shipped from. Another part of our duties was to liaise between the production company, local communities, and various First Nations Bands whose territories could be possible locations for filming episodes for the series Deadman’s Curse.
Over the next year, we worked for various producers and editors, with a few projects for other companies. It was all very exciting for both of us. Then COVID hit with a bang, and all work came to a sudden standstill.
A month after this, I began to have pain in my right side, just below the ribs, so I went to see my doctor, and after numerous tests, he said that they found several tumours in my liver and they were cancerous. I took this quite seriously and knew that I needed to get my hands on some turkey tail mushrooms. I needed to make a tincture.
Medicinal uses of turkey tail include the treatment of lung and liver infections. In China, turkey tail has been used as a preventive and curative agent for liver infections and liver cancer. In Japan, it is considered a panacea for a variety of cancers. Overall, the mycelium and fruiting body of the mushroom are considered to have immune-simulator and anti-carcinogenic activities. Clinical research with PSK began around 1970 and has focused on its immunotherapeutic efficacy in stomach, colorectal, esophageal, nasopharyngeal, lung, and breast cancers. In Japan, it has been approved as a pharmaceutical-grade medicine for cancer treatment and has been used for more than 30 years with consistent clinical efficacy. Turkey tail mushroom medicine is not a true cancer treatment, although it does have cancer-fighting qualities. What it is is the best immune system booster in the world. It beefs up your system, and this allows you to fight the cancer.
Turkey Tail Mushrooms can be found all through the year, but you can see them better during the winter when deciduous trees are bare. This very variable fungus grows mainly on dead hardwood, including stumps and standing dead trees, as well as fallen branches. These beautiful fungi grow in profusion here on Vancouver Island, but it does not matter how many times you see them; they still catch your eye with their beauty.
This mushroom is used in traditional Chinese medicine as a boost to the immune system, and studies are being done to see what anticarcinogenic properties it contains. Its polysaccharides are thought to be effective constituents. All I know is that it is a great spring elixir. It contains Antioxidants and Polysaccharopeptides, and it seems to help people with poor immune systems. It is well known for its ability to fight cancer. Although turkey tail mushroom tincture is fairly easy to produce, it requires 3 months to complete the procedure.
After getting the tincture made, I went on 10 drops, twice a day, for 6 months, then had my doctor retest me. Tumours were gone. This was good news. At this time, a friend who was in the final stages of throat cancer asked if I would sell him some of my meds. I am against selling this, so I offered to keep him on a regimen of turkey tail for as long as it takes to clear it from his throat. He is now cancer-free.
My youngest son, Forrest, was working at the co-op gas station in Sayward during this time. My boy is empathetic, and one day, there was a lady who stopped for gas, and my son could tell she was in distress and asked her if she was ok. She proceeded to tell my son that earlier that day, she had taken her dog, who was under the weather, to see her vet in Victoria. She said the vet informed her that her dog was riddled with cancer and needed to be put down. She decided that she was going to take her dog camping one more time and then return to the vet. All my son said to her was, “I think you need to talk to my dad.” He arranged for her to come over to our house, and I met her dog and prescribed some medicine for her to try. I told her it may not cure him, but he will be more comfortable. She was camping for 6 days, and her dog returned to almost normal. She took him to her vet, and he could not figure out what had transpired, but the dog had somehow begun to get better. Almost three years later, she wrote me to say that at 16, her pup had passed and thanked me for those added years.
She had moved to Ontario after meeting me and had joined a dog club there. After her pup passed, she wrote a story about the medicine and the healer she had met on the island, who helped her dog. She posted it to the dog club newsletter. Not long after, I began to get requests for medicine from dog owners all over Ontario. Although I have always provided medicine for free, many of these requests came with donations. I used this to create more medicines of various plants and mushrooms for a variety of ailments for both animals and people.