Excerpts from Ocala.com-  By Dave Schlenker, Entertainment editor – Photo credit: Lee Ferinden/Ocala Star-Banner. Firefighter Helen Hunter went through the Detoxification program funded by John Travolta. She is shown here at Fire Station #5 on Saturday, July 17, 2010 in Ocala, Florida.

Published: Monday, July 26, 2010 at 6:30 a.m. -Helen Hunter recently jumped into the local roller-derby circuit.

This is an appropriate footnote about the always-on-the-go Ocala firefighter. Hunter is pushing 40, and she smiles at the mere thought of derby competition. She embraces athletics, working out, fighting fires, health and the relationship between all of them.
She will tell you with complete conviction the healthier she is, the better she can fight fires for the taxpayers who pay her salary. She is passionate about performing at her best, physically and mentally.
And that’s how John Travolta came into her life.

Hunter and 14 other local firefighters recently completed – or are completing – an extensive detoxification program funded by $26,000 that Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston raised at their Ocala “From Paris With Love” gala in April.
The detoxification requires daily saunas, niacin pills, showers, aerobic exercise, more saunas and then more showers. The idea is to cleanse the body of toxins and other harmful substances.

Hunter was in good health before she opted for detoxification. But, being a firefighter for 16 years, she has been exposed to toxins and suffers from achy joints from hauling equipment and climbing out of fire trucks.
“A week into it, my joint pain was gone,” she said last week of the detoxification program. She also touts another notable result: “Overall mental clarity; stress just effuses away.
“Something positive happened every day.”

So what, exactly, is detoxification?

“This is not a health program, it is a wellness program,” said Brett Miller with the Heroes Health Fund, a nonprofit group that helps fund detoxification programs. “We work with medical professionals.”
It is an extensive, month long (more or less) regime designed to rid the body of harmful substances and amp up energy. This detoxification program is based on a book by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. It is not, advocates stress, a Scientology program.

Travolta, a faithful Scientologist who lives in Anthony, has helped start similar programs elsewhere in the United States and vowed to do the same with seed money from the “Paris” party.
Toxins are stored in the body’s fatty tissue, where they are excreted by sweating, explained Dr. George Yu, a surgeon and professor at George Washington University who champions detoxification.

Starting in early June, the sessions were held at Compass Health & Fitness, which provided space and equipment for free, Miller said. The money the Travoltas helped raise was used to cover supplies, vitamins and staff salaries, he added.
“I will admit it was tough,” said Ocala Fire Operations Chief Jim Ganter, who also went through the program. He had no reservations going into it, thinking – at the very least – he would be exercising often.

Like Hunter, his aches and pains subsided; plus, he said, “mentally, I seem even more crisp.” He said he even noticed his dry skin – a problem since childhood – cleared up early into treatment.

City firefighters were allowed to use their sick leave for the program, and Hunter took off all 33 days of treatment. Others did the same, but some whose work is less physical and office-bound – such as Ganter – went to work after the morning detoxification sessions. He said he also worked some weekends to make up the time.

After the treatment, Hunter discussed her experiences in a video. In it, she was asked if she wanted to say anything to the Travoltas for bringing the program to Ocala. Upon recalling her words, the rumble-and-tumble firefighter paused before speaking.

“I thanked them hugely for the opportunity to do this,” she said, fighting back tears. “For these people to do something like that off the cuff was amazing. It was a totally selfless act. That’s why there was no quitting.”