WILLIAMSTON, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – In the YouTube movie Poster Girl, former professional model Gayle Gurchiek turns the camera on herself, revealing what she considers to be cracks in conventional Western medicine while tracing a haunting pattern of cancer cases in her hometown of Williamston, Michigan.
In the first part of this story, Michigan News Source spoke with Gurchiek and examined her film – part memoir, part investigative exposé. The documentary is not only about a fight for her own survival, but also a demand for accountability and public health reform – a call to action for anyone who believes that clean air and safe water are basic human rights.
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Gurchiek’s journey is about more than medical treatments – it’s about truth and justice. She has connected with environmental advocates, including U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to bring attention to what she believes is an ongoing environmental crisis, not only across Williamston, but across the rest of the country.
A woman’s battle.
As Gurchiek continues her fight, she doesn’t want her story to be just about her. “People need to understand we are being poisoned. This is not political. It’s not religious. It’s not about gender or race. This is humanity,” she says. Her battle is both intensely personal and universally urgent: a woman fighting cancer using every resource she can find, and a community demanding answers about why so many of its families are dying too soon.
Gurchiek tells Michigan News Source about her fight for the people of Williamston, “Fighting cancer is a full-time job. There is not one day that I have free from not having to deal with that… but doing this is a full-time job as well… you have to have passion, dedication, commitment, and the will, because it’s not easy.”
An ally in her fight.
Biochemist and environmental investigator Les Rogers works at Grewal Law in Okemos and holds a degree from Michigan State University. He has worked on contamination cases ranging from Camp Lejeune’s water toxicity to the Flint water crisis.
He attended the same high school as Gurchiek, graduating two years before her, and has been collaborating with her for about two years to investigate the source of cancer clusters in Williamston.
Rogers told Michigan News Source, “Something is going on…You can’t really swing a sock and not hit somebody who’s either been affected or lost a loved one due to some bizarre type of cancer.” He added that many diagnoses are unusually younger residents – “I was diagnosed at 55, my sister at 31” explaining that these aren’t your typical ‘I’m 73 and I got prostate cancer’ cases.”
A community surrounded by contamination?
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According to Rogers, one possible cause of the cancer cases in Williamston may be hidden beneath – and surrounding – the town itself. “The Red Cedar River runs directly through the town… then there are several off-tributaries,” he explained, adding that the groundwater shares the same (water) tables that feed nearby creeks and lakes. Tests of well-head samples, he said, have detected “heavy metals, arsenic, a lot of stuff.”
Rogers believes decades of industrial waste could also be part of the story: “They used a lot of iron sludge back in the day in the quarry that was in Williamston, when they had a brick factory…” he explains. He adds that there’s just too much “coincidence” in the number of cancer cases in the town for it not to be linked to an environmental cause – or possibly several.
Chemical and agricultural history.
The investigator also points to the region’s long agricultural history and pesticide use and how fields were sprayed by planes which most likely used a formulation of glyphosate or perhaps paraquat – chemicals later linked to cancers and Parkinson’s disease.
Rogers described how “drift,” or overspray, can expose nearby homes much like secondhand smoke. “It floats into your yard, it floats into your neighborhood, and you get exposure, whether you like it or not.”
While emphasizing that no “smoking gun” has been confirmed and the investigation is still ongoing, Rogers said further testing of the city’s soil and groundwater is essential to get information needed to prevent more residents from suffering unexplained illnesses.
As testing continues, Williamston’s story should be a warning for small towns everywhere – that what lies beneath the soil and flows through the rivers can quietly shape generations. For Gayle Gurchiek, the fight is no longer just for her life, but for a reckoning – one that could force those in power to confront what’s been ignored for far too long. Her message is simple: silence won’t save lives – action will.
