Letters: Raw milk program has done great things for community

The raw milk program has done great things for both my family and this community.

Over 20 years ago, my then 9-year-old daughter was stricken with a very rare medical condition called Guillaine-Barre syndrome. An ordinary virus, the same one that all her friends and siblings had, had attacked her body very differently and left her paralyzed from the neck down. She plateaued just as they were about to put her on a respirator.

For three months, I lived at Rogue Valley Memorial Hospital with my daughter and 6-month-old son. It was an excruciatingly painful experience and one I wouldn't wish upon anyone, but having gone through this experience, and the knowledge I gained from it, the last thing I would want is for the cause of the illness to be misplaced.

There was no investigation into how my daughter became sick. There was no need. It wasn't the virus that actually caused her illness. It was a cruel trick that her own body had played on her. The doctors told me that it was most likely to attack someone with a very good immune system. My daughter has since gotten better and is now a healthy mother of two.

Now there is a lot of talk in the community that raw milk was the cause of a case of Guillaine-Barre syndrome. I cannot speculate on whether or not the campylobacter came from the raw milk or some other source. There is no need. I have been drinking raw milk for two years and educating myself about its effects. Since I began drinking raw milk, I have lost the pain in my hip joints and just feel better.

The raw milk program has done great things for both my family and this community. I feel we should have the right to make our own health choices. No one has decided that all tomatoes should now be pasteurized. Cigarettes are still sold everywhere, drugs are approved that have not been tested long enough to examine the long-term effects, but for some reason, the government feels that we should not be able to purchase milk without killing every healthy organism in it.

The Alexandres' dairy milk program is one that could be an example for other dairy farmers. I appreciate the Alexandres and all that they have done for me and my family.

Sarah Valley

Crescent City