1.
Picturesque streets of Phyki village with sheeps and cows and young boys playing.


2.
This is the house of Christos Kokkalis; he is told to stay there and avoid journalists until his pills are examined by the Health Authorities. This in order to avoid rush of people into the village for nothing.


3.
This is Mount Kozakas from where Kokkalis, an Aesculapius, collects p.t.o.




Initials


PS: Because the Gendannerie told Kokkalis to keep secret his exploits until the Public Health Authorities examine the case, we were not allowed to take any shot of him or his family. He in hiding and won't appear afraid for the consequences of the Gendarmerie.

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Thousands of hopeless people from every corner of Greece rushed to the small village of Phyki, Thessaly, to seek a miraculous herb which is believed to curing leukemia: blood cancer. And this, for a villager by the name of Christs Kokkalis have already cured half a dozen of old and young people of the neighbourhoods. Kokkalis, a turkey-breeder, knew from father to son the curative powers of certain herbs of the nearby plateau or Mount Kozakas and was using them in making various medicine for curing villagers and beasts. One day he was informed by the village doctor that his turkeys were suffering from leukemia; tens of them were dying every day. In his hopelessness Kokkalis decided to use his curative herbs. One of them proved very effective and within two weeks his turkeys were all cured. He kept anyhow secret his tactic and only when a neighbour of his, the 72-year-old Kyratsa Pourokosta, was about to die he decided to intervene by giving her pills made out of his herb. The old woman who suffered from leukemia after two weeks woke up and walked out to the fields. Another little girl, the 3-year-old Chariklea Marova, was also cured after taking 8 pills. Dr. John Chiotis from Trikkala of Thessaly confirmed the above cases and thus so much the Health Authorities as the Greek Medical Association have taken the matter up for further investigation and examination. The fact that Kokkalis' turkeys have been cured with the herb in question the moment the District Doctor ascertained that the birds were suffering from leukemia, is a sufficient proof that something will come out of this accidental find. It is noteworthy that Mount Kozakas plateau where these herbs are found was in the ancient times the "drugstore" of Aesculapius, the father of Medicine.