VANCOUVER -- Just over two years ago, Brice Royer was diagnosed with a rare type of stomach cancer. He is now convinced it is the cash economy that made him sick.

Royer wanted to know what caused the cancer, but his doctors weren’t able to tell him. He did his own research and learned most cancers are caused by environmental factors, such as smoking, dietary choices and chemical exposure, rather than genetics.

That wasn’t a good enough answer for Royer, so he dug deeper, asking why there are “toxins” in food and pollution in the air and water.

It was an economist who answered him: Money.

“That kind of blew me away because I never saw the connection at all between my health problem and the economy and trade,” said Royer, now 30. He also came across medical research linking loneliness with a greater likelihood of sickness.

He moved from bustling south Burnaby to quiet Deep Cove to immerse himself in nature. Sickly and unable to gain weight for months, Royer suddenly put on 10 pounds.

He also started looking for ways to remove himself from the system he believed was making him sick and stumbled upon the concept of the gift economy, in which people give and receive freely with no expectation of anything in return, popularized by the movie Pay It Forward.

Royer discovered communities and businesses in cities around the world that follow this philosophy, but nothing in Vancouver. So he started a Facebook group on May 21, wrote a blog post sharing his own story (visit http://bit.ly/SuSugL), and invited his friends. At last count, the group had almost 350 members.

Items offered as gifts include a seven-day Bahamas/Florida cruise, an iPod Touch, a spot at a women’s wellness retreat, a dryer, graphic design help and a meeting space for the group at a wellness centre in Kitsilano.

The underlying philosophy is that transactions using money isolate people from one another, whereas giving something creates trusting relationships and builds communities.

One of the group’s most active members is Peter Endisch, a computer programmer turned environmental activist, who decided to give Royer his car — a 2000 minivan which he had planned to sell for $1,500 — after reading Royer’s blog post.

Endisch said he likes to think of himself as altruistic, but the blog made him realize he must do a better job of walking the talk and teaching generosity to his six-year-old son.

He didn’t stop with the car. Endisch, who is moving and downsizing, also gave his neighbour a kayak he had planned to sell for $700. The neighbour, an artist who wanted to be able to paint in the middle of a lake, couldn’t afford the price.

After joining the gift economy group, Endisch decided: “Screw it, I’m just going to give it to him,” and wrote a Facebook group post to that effect informing his neighbour, who was floored by the gesture. Endisch has since offered the group many pieces of furniture and household items he had initially planned to sell.