A healthy dose of faith

Miracle survivor Kathy Wood

Thanks to everyone for your supportive and loving comments. I really didn’t intend this blog to focus on me, but I guess my experiences are part of the package here.

After interviewing dozens of  ”miracle survivors,” I discovered several shared attributes. Faith makes the top of the list. While they had different beliefs, almost every one of them gave credit to having some sort of higher power that helped them through their hardships.

That has certainly been the case for me, punctuated by my recent news and subsequent thrust back into chemo. Studies show that people benefit even when people pray for them without their knowing it. So when people say they are praying for me, it means a lot.

To Kathy Wood, one of the first people I interviewed, faith is the most important thing in her life. It really came to play when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 32, underwent a grueling stem cell transplant, then years later learned cancer had spread to her brain.

My faith definitely kept me going. I felt God’s protection. I had many, many people around the globe who prayed for me. One Sunday, a woman came up to me after church and asked if she could be my prayer warrior. I didn’t know what that meant but I liked the sound of it. She later told me she got down on her knees and prayed every day for me.

One of the prayers that helped me when I had my stem cell transplant was that God’s angels were watching over me. I can’t tell you how many times I visualized that while I was in the hospital.

I had a vision of a white wall protecting my family, making sure we were cared for. I called this my “prayer wall” because I knew it came from all those people’s prayers. 

… In 2008, I created Hangin’ on Faith, a ministry to provide hope and encouragement to people facing difficult situations of all types. Hangin’ on Faith provides an online forum where people can share their stories about how they survived a life challenge by “hangin’” on their faith. We also send out newsletters that go to nearly 500 people.

… It’s been six years since my recurrence, so I’ve certainly outlived my oncologist’s most hopeful prediction. I’m grateful to God and the people who continue to surround me with a wall of prayer.