Sorry, you had to go through that, it must have been very traumatic, especially knowing one of the crucial medicines she needed was illegal and you would be violently kidnapped and tortured if you were caught with it.
I have seen many people die and recover from cancer over the years. Some friends absolutely hate the pharmaceutical industry and go through a "natural" homeopathic remedy in an attempt to cure their cancer and others just go through chemo. The homeopathic remedies are just plain idiotic but I am placed in a moral dilemma as I won't convince my friends by talking about moles and Avogadro constant and the math behind homeopathic solutions and anything I do tell them will weaken the small hope that they are healed from the placebo effect alone.
I'm not a fan of drugs, but Cannabinoids have been shown to attack cancerous cells in research and I would certainly be eating hash brownies , applying hash oil and going through targeted chemo if I ever developed cancer.
It sucks seeing someone you love die of cancer. It was funny to see my old gray haired mother huffing on a bong. lol Some of the best conversations we had about my childhood were during that last year when she was high. She hated the meds she was on and thought about homeopathic alternatives but, being a very practical woman, told us she thought they were all bullshit (her words).
Yeah, it's crazy to keep a drug from people that works in the name of protecting children and then dope kids up on Ritalin until they sit in a corner all day and play with an old shoe (a friends 11 yo kid would just play with a shoe for hours sitting on the floor).