Hi, my name is Gill, in February 2013 I went to my doctor for a check-up as I had suffered from light bleeding and pains in my womb for the last couple of months, listening to my symptoms my doctor quickly realised that something was seriously wrong and referred me to our local hospital for a colposcopy. During this examination the specialist realised that I had a tumour growing on my cervix and told me straightaway that it looks very much like cancer. As you might imagine I was really shocked and scared and lots of thoughts went through my mind. On the way home from hospital I prayed and asked the Lord for strength, guidance and healing and could feel myself become calmer and felt God’s peace within me. This very much became my way of life over the next couple of weeks; praying and reading the Bible for guidance. At the same time I knew that many people in our church kept me in daily prayer and showed a lot of love and support in both spiritual and practical ways. One scripture which guided me through my low moments and really helped me was:
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 TIMOTHY 1:7)
When I went to the hospital to get the results of the colposcopy I felt at peace and could feel the presence of the Lord, knowing that the Lord was with me meant that the actual diagnosis of cervical cancer did not shock me, I surprised the doctor and nurses who were with me by how calmly I took the news. As I was a mother of four young boys I was very quickly referred to see a specialist consultant. Whenever I went to the hospital a very good friend of mine came with me, so that I did not have to face the doctors, examinations and scans alone. One of my prayers was that the Lord would provide a cancer consultant who would not pressurise me into any treatment, but rather would work with me and listen to my wishes.
During this time especially I looked up many scriptures that gave me comfort and encouragement:
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (PSALM 1:27)
“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” (1 PETER 5:7)
“… let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (JOHN 14:27)
“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.” (JEREMIAH 17:14)
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (ISAIAH 53:5)
As soon as the suspicion arose that I might have cancer I started to look into natural remedies and changed my whole diet accordingly. I believe that this change in diet, fresh vegetable juicing and taking nutritional supplements which are known to fight cancer really strengthen my immune system and helped me cope with all the stress of being in and out of hospital for examinations and scans.
It took only days from diagnosis to referral and meeting my consultant who looked after me and drew-up my treatment plan. Praise the Lord, God answered my prayer and my consultant was a ‘God send’. He confirmed again that I had cancer of the cervix and that the normal treatment plan would be surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I told him that I am a spirit-filled Christian and that I believe that God will heal me completely and that I do not want to have chemotherapy or radiotherapy. At the same time I told him about all the natural remedies I was taking and that I wanted to continue with this approach. At no point did he go against my wishes and was very supportive even stating “I want you to be happy and comfortable with the treatment you receive...”. This really gave me peace of mind and confirmed to me that God was with me all the way.
After a great deal of prayer I decided to have surgery (a hysterectomy), but no other medical treatment whatsoever. My consultant referred me to different specialists for scans and MRI. I was scheduled for surgery in mid April and he wanted to make sure that the cancer had not spread. When I went in for surgery the Lord provided me with nurses and other medical staff who looked after me and comforted and encouraged me to keep my eyes on God, particularly when none of my family or friends could be with me. The surgery went very well and the following day my consultant remarked on how well I looked and asked if I had a blood transfusion as I did not look pale. Later my consultant, who had been my surgeon, stated that he was very surprised that the tumour had not spread and was in fact smaller than what was shown in the scan. As I opted against any further treatment he removed the surrounding glands to be sure that the cancer was complete removed. To the surprise of the nurses and doctors I recovered very quickly and without any complications.
A couple of weeks after surgery we were called in to see the consultant to receive the results of the biopsy of the removed glands. Only then did I find out that one of the scans showed a shadow in my lung and as well a shadow in my pelvis. The consultant was astonished to discover that all the glands were completely free of cancer, and he believed then that the shadow in the lung had nothing whatsoever to do with cancer. He stated again how surprised he was when during surgery he saw how 'small' the tumour was, as he expected to see a much larger one. I believe that the Lord worked this miracle and shrank the tumour to a much smaller size and destroyed the cancer lurking in my pelvis. At the moment I have to go in every six month for a check-up, but I have received a letter from the hospital stating that there is no concern that the cancer will return! I can only praise the Lord and thank Him for how He drew me closer in this difficult time, partly carrying me through and giving me indescribable reassurance that I will be absolutely fine!
Praise the Lord!
I just want to thank all the people in my church who supported me and my family in so many different ways during this difficult time !
Love in Christ,
Gill.
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