Briana Bilbray wants to get the word out during Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention month. Bilbray is just 25 years old but has already endured a lifetime of cancer treatments. Her latest surgery was about three weeks ago.
"Anything to where the melanoma could be hiding, they went in there and took it all out," she said.
That comes after the melanoma returned twice since early last year when she noticed a changing freckle on her leg. Intensive, debilitating chemo followed.
"The nausea is just completely unbearable… all you want to do is go take care of it, but you can't," said Bilbray.
After seeing her unable to sleep or eat and losing weight, her friends suggested medical marijuana.
"I kind of brushed it off at first being like that's just how they're trying to legitimize the dispensaries out here," she said.
However, she finally tried it.
"The medicinal marijuana worked instantly," she said. "Not only was the nausea gone, I was hungry."
Thus, an advocate was born. Bilbray wants bans on dispensaries lifted -- as she told the Imperial Beach City Council last July -- saying they were "punishing" the people who need it by keeping the ban in place.
Her father, Rep. Brian Bilbray, a Republican, opposes medical marijuana. In November 2011, Bilbray was quoted as saying, "Dad will come around."
"He was intrigued and wanted to look into it," she said. "He recognizes that there could be some benefit for chemo patients."
While Rep. Bilbray is not fully convinced, his youngest daughter says her experience has made him more open to it.
"It's good when politicians have family to keep them in check," she said with a laugh.
She said her father is about to introduce a bill that would tax tanning beds with the money going toward melanoma research.
Bilbray will begin 12 weeks of immune therapy next month. Her goal is to keep the melanoma from coming back.
Source: 10News.com
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