Member-only story
Today I Speak Before My Church About Fighting Cancer
I’m nervous but also looking forward to it
I am fighting cancer for the third time. The first time I was diagnosed, in January of 2004, I was given 6 months to live. The type of cancer I had, inflammatory breast cancer, at that time had a very bad survival rate. According to research papers I read at the time, only 15% of patients with my type of cancer survived 18 months.
Those odds looked pretty grim, but I had a support system in my husband who took amazing care of me. I also had my faith.
A lot of people are afraid to talk about faith these days, or at least the Christian faith. But faith is powerful for adherents. This applies to people of all faiths, whether they are Hindus, Buddhists, or Wiccans.
For myself, I found my relationship with Jesus to be a source of strength and comfort.
This has been particularly true as the cancer has returned in recent years.
First it came back as a ductal carcinoma. I had to have a mastectomy. That was very hard for me. Here is a painting I created to help me express how I felt afterwards. I have used art to help me deal with my emotions.
