Roxanne Friend

Another rejected brick was proposed by Stacy Brooks, a former Scientologist and president of the Lisa McPherson Trust. She ordered a brick in memory of Roxanne Friend, who died of cancer after leaving Scientology. Why her order was returned, Brooks cannot understand.

"Wow. What is happening here?" she asked.

"It was a way of honoring someone who was close to me who is now dead," Brooks said. "They've made a unilateral decision about my brick without ever discussing it with me. They're getting their information from someone other than me. I have a good idea where they got it."

I have personally reviewed a video of a television interview of Roxanne Friend, a former Scientologist. She had cancer which could have been successfully treated. She was kidnapped in California and taken across country in a motorhome to FLAG in Clearwater where she was held against her will, which prevented her from getting cancer treatment. [...] She disclosed that she was beyond treatment because of this delay and subsequently died.

198. Roxanne Friend, a Scientologist, contracted cancer in the late 1980s. She was getting auditing for her condition at the Clearwater HQ, but was not doing well and repeatedly requested approval to see a doctor. Her requests were not granted. She was told continue on with her auditing.

12. As I stated on pages 624-630 of my depositions, I believed that Scientology cured illnesses as this was taught to me in Scientology.

13. As I stated on pages 643 and 668, I truly believed it when I was told that Scientology was a science and not a belief system. It is only after two years of counseling that I can really even begin to face the idea that the things I was trained to practice as a science was not a science. It is very traumatic to be facing these falsehoods and the detriment the fraudulent claims have cause me.

14. During my relationship with Scientology, I was referred by Scientology to the Shaw Health Center for regular medical treatment. I was told that all of the doctors at Shaw were practicing Scientologists who used Scientology principles and techniques in their diagnosis and treatment. I was consistently dissuaded by my auditors and case supervisors from obtaining treatment from non-Scientologist physicians.

Various excerpts of Roxanne Friend from ABC Nightline's "A conversation with David Miscavige" [See the flyer on David S. Touretzky's site][Download the video]

[...]

SALLY: Did they tell you that it was psychosomatic, that the cancer —

ROXANNE: I was trained for 13 years to believe that there is no such thing as illness, that it is psychosomatic. Read Dianetics and it says it in there. And I got up to the top of the Scientology charts. And I was not supposed to be ill. There is no such thing as illness in Scientology; it can be audited out. You can pay and have it removed, because it is all in your mind. And I was so heavily trained to believe that that I felt that I something was mentally very, very wrong. And —

SALLY: Are you afraid of being with me now?

ROXANNE: Very much so. Yes.

SALLY: I mean, the lady I talked to backstage and the lady I'm talking to now — pardon me — is —

ROXANNE: I'm scared to death, Sally.

SALLY: Why are you so frightened?

ROXANNE: My brother is still involved. I love him dearly. We're 11 months apart. We were very close. He will not speak with me right now, because he's not allowed to, because of the Church of Scientology.

[...]