Early 1890s — An “old Indian medicine man” gave an eight-herb tea formula to Mrs. Johnson (or Johnston) for her breast cancer.  The tea cured her cancer but left a scar on her breast.

1922 —  Head Nurse Rene M. Caisse inquired about the scar on her breast at the Sisters of Providence Hospital in northern Ontario, Canada.  Mrs. Johnson then gave the eight-herb tea recipe to Nurse Rene Caisse.  

1924 — Rene Caisse uses the “Indian medicine man’s” tea to treat her first patient (her aunt) for inoperable cancer under the supervision of Dr. R. O. Fisher.  Her aunt lives for 21 more years free of cancer.  Under doctor supervision, Rene begins private testing of mice with human carcinoma.  The research shows promising results.

1926 — Eight doctors petitioned the Department of National Health & Welfare to request that Rene Caisse be given facilities to do independent research of her discovery.   The Department responded by threatening to arrest Rene Caisse for “practicing medicine without a license”.   The eight doctors do not use the word Essiac in their petition and only refer to it as “treatment for cancer given by R. M. Caisse”.

1927 — Rene quits her general nursing work in favor of independent research and treatment of terminal patients.  The Ontario Minister of Health grants Rene permission to carry on treating patients as long as she charges no fee and patients have written diagnoses/referrals from their doctors. 

1928-1930 — Rene is provided research facilities at the Christie Street Hospital Laboratories in Toronto to test Essiac on mice with Rous Sarcoma.  Essiac keeps them alive longer than any treatment had previously.  Dr. Frederick Banting offers to work with Rene in his facilities at Univ. of Toronto.  Dr. Banting was a co-discoverer of insulin.  However, Rene turns down Dr. Banting’s offer. 

1934 — Dr. Albert Bastedo leads a successful drive to get the Bracebridge town council to provide facilities for a cancer clinic for Rene in her home town of Bracebridge, Ontario. 

1935 —  Rene Caisse opened up the Bracebridge Cancer Clinic in August.

1936 (summer) —  The Canadian Medical Association offers Rene the opportunity to do formal animal testing, but she declines, feeling she’s done enough testing on animals.

1936-7 (winter) — In addition to clinic patients, Rene travels regularly to Toronto to treat patients, and also to Chicago to treat 12 patients in a clinical trial at Northwestern University Tumor Clinic.  Chicago doctors offer to open a clinic in the Passervant Hospital if Rene will move to the United States.

1937 (summer) — Dr. Richard Leonardo offers to set up a clinic and work with Rene in Rochester, New York if she will move to the United States.  Rene refuses the US offers in favor of proving Essiac in Canada.

1938 (March 24) — A bill is presented to the Ontario Legislature to formally authorize Rene to treat cancer patients.  The bill fails by three votes.  Another bill did pass (the Kirby Bill) and it set up a commission to investigate cancer remedies.

1939 (July 4) —  The Canadian Cancer Commission hearings begin but mainstream medicine would not recognize Rene Caisse’s achievements.

1941 — Disillusioned and exhausted Rene closes the Cancer Clinic for the last time.

1959-1960 — Rene Caisse briefly joined forces with Dr. Charles Brusch to research Essiac at the Brusch Medical Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  However, Rene Caisse did not give Dr. Brusch the Essiac formula.  After Rene’s death Dr. Brusch got the formula from Dr. Gary Glum and/or Mary McPherson, either directly or indirectly. 

1963 — Rene Caisse wrote and made available for limited distribution “I Was Canada’s Cancer Nurse“. 

1973 — Dr. Chester Stock of Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute contacted Rene Caisse expressing his interest in conducting animal research with Essiac.  The letters between Dr. Chester Stock and Rene Caisse are the only documented evidence of the importance of sheep sorrel root in Essiac.  Dr. Stock ended this research in 1976.

1977 (June-August) — Homemakers Magazine of Toronto publishes an article “Could Essiac Halt Cancer?” based on the research and writings of Sheila Snow.  The article triggers a national resurgence of interest in Essiac.  Rene has to have an extra phone line added to cope with all the calls.  She gets the attention of the Canadian Cancer Research Foundation and the Cancer Institute in Toronto, who caution Rene not to treat any more people and authorizes a human study to be done by a St. Marie, Ontario oncologist.  Testing conducted by Drs. David Walde and John Barker – due to poor quality materials, Essiac still not clinically proven effective.  Resperin Corporation, a small, nearly defunct pharmaceutical company based in Toronto, promises it will set up clinical studies on human patients all across Canada in return for marketing rights.

1977-1978 — The evidence indicates that Rene Caisse gave Essiac tea and the Essiac formula and recipe to Mrs. Pat Judson of Deering, Michigan.

1977-1978 — The evidence indicates that Rene Caisse gave Essiac tea and the Essiac formula and recipe to Gilbert Blondin of Hull, Quebec.

1977 (October) — Rene gives Resperin Corp. a formula for the token sum of $1.  The promised clinical studies never materialize and Rene Caisse never receives any promised royalties.  Apparently, Rene only sold the formula to Resperin, but not the recipe.  Resperin finds that it doesn’t even know how to make Essiac tea so Rene’s best friend, Mary McPherson, showed them how to make it.

1978 (spring) — A public forum in Toronto failed to get the formula for the tea publicly recognized.  

1978 (June) — A class-action lawsuit in Detroit in which Pat Judson was involved failed to make Essiac available in the US.

1978 (August 11) — Rene’s 90th birthday party, organized by Mary McPherson and attended by over 600, including Pat Judson, honors her life and work.

1978 (September) — Rene was honored and recognized for her work at an alternative therapies convention in Detroit.

1978 (December 26) — Rene’s life ends after being hospitalized after a fall that breaks her hip.

1985 —  The evidence indicates Pat Judson sold the Essiac formula to Dr. Gary Glum for $120,000.

1985 — Gilbert Blondin goes into partnership with Pierre Gaulin.

1988 — Dr. Gary Glum publishes CALLING OF AN ANGEL which promotes his video tape revealing both the Essiac formula and recipe, thereby placing Essiac in the public domain.

1993 — Sheila Snow publishes her first book, THE ESSENCE OF ESSIAC.  (now out of print)

1994 (December 23) — Mary McPherson confirms Dr. Glum’s formula as being correct by recording a sworn affidavit in the Town of Bracebridge revealing the Essiac formula and recipe.

1999 — Sheila Snow publishes ESSIAC ESSENTIALS, The Remarkable Herbal Cancer Fighter.  (now out of print)

2000 (July 5) — Mary McPherson states that the company that was allegedly continuing the Resperin corporation work was not making up the tea like Rene Caisse did.

2001 — Sheila Snow publishes ESSIAC, The Secrets of Rene Caisse’s Herbal Pharmacy.  (now out of print)

2003 (September) — The webmaster of www.HealthFreedom.info interviews Dr. Gary Glum and obtains a certified true copy of Mary McPherson’s affidavit of Rene Caisse’s formula and recipe from the Commissioner for Affidavits of the Town of Bracebridge, Ontario.  The affidavit is then posted on the Health Freedom Info website.  This was the first time that Mary McPherson’s affidavit appeared on the internet for all the world to view. 

2011 — THE COMPLETE ESSIAC ESSENTIALS becomes available in print from Sheila Snow’s research and documentation.