Faith
Or how has faith helped people to cope with their cancer disease?
Faith
A cancer diagnosis can be very overwhelming and it touches upon existential questions. Many cancer patients reported that faith helped them to cope with cancer. Listen to what they have experienced.
Listen as cancer survivors share how faith helped them
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how breast cancer survivors experienced it
“I have faith, I’m strong in faith and I used to pray a lot. I pray and I had support from my friends whom we partnered with at the church. My Bishop was also supporting me. Therefore, with my faith I believed that I would be healed through prayers and by taking my medications I was so strong and I was confident. When I went for chemotherapy you wouldn’t know that I have cancer. In that, when I reach the hospital and I’m seated I’m told, “Let your patient come in and lay on the bed.” Now I and… I would go and get on top of the bed, “Soo you are the patient with which type of cancer?” I’m asked. It reached a point that the question bothered me. Because I would be passed on line by patients and I’m told, “You wait just wait,” I would allow other patients to go before. And it comes a time when you too ,you are busy and you need to be served and the humanity in us until I complained. I told a certain woman, “Why do these doctors treat me like this?” But that woman encouraged me and she said, “My daughter you don’t look like you have cancer and it has reached/ when it reaches God’s presence and He has helped you. And you can’t be compared to cancer. This is a manifestation of your healing so don’t be angry.” She changed my perspective of life and from there I was content. I would tell the doctor to tell me when he was going to see me and we agree and I go and he serves me. So I changed my lifestyle and I decided to live one day after a day. I lived day by day. Challenges were there like pain and they used to put…eee songs for glorifying God and those of/ those of worship I listen to them in my ears.” (Nafula, 2024)
“Mostly let’s say like the first time that which I have said I was to do reconstruction that time at night that evening I slept in hospital so that they would do that construction. At night that evening there was a priest he came before I came in the morning I went to church when I was going for confession mass with father and he prayed for me. When I came father came and he anointed me with the anointing of the sick and he gave me sacrament and he prayed for me. And in praying he said if there is any disease that is hidden God to reveal it so that we may get the right treatment. So those words and the way that journey has been and it helped me and the following day that disease was discovered because normal eyes we were looking and even you could not guess that it was cancer. And that day they saw and it was taken after three days they found cancer and it reached a bad stage now. So I see like… and then those prayers you see that, that faith and because I don’t have any other reliance He is my near support. So what I do see we were praying so much together and also friends were promising to pray for me. Then I was also putting myself in prayers mostly because I would get at least hope in life. Hope because I had lost hope. So I was praying so much so that I would get hope and in that pain I was going through I would get relief. So it helped me because I believe in Almighty God if it is not Almighty God I would have not reached here. Almighty God has helped me and I can say maybe he wanted to give me the cross or it was a way he wanted to show me so that I may show others too. If someone has a problem like that I may help him. Of course he must be one of those who walked in that way though it is bad but there is someone in front of you and you lead others”
“I thank God I really thank God because I pulled through regardless (…) I have learned a lot in this journey one I have learnt to appreciate life you take every day at a time I have learned to appreciate God and to give God a very close to/ to bring God very close to me. Sometimes you look back and even wonder how you made it to where you are today. This cancer journey has really impacted a lot of things in my life today because I/ one you get to learn to appreciate every bit of your life you get to appreciate people around you. (…) One and very important it is God. It is the grace of God that has been sufficient and I thank God. I thank God and I don’t know if I were to see God today I don’t know what I would say to Him I have so many things to say to him. I don’t know where I would begin and finish because it has just been His hand that has carried me all through.” (Fredah, 2024)
“So that became my strength that the God who allowed it to happen because he knows everything and nothing goes without his knowledge. So, if he allowed it to happen, he will make a way through” (Fredah)
Can you relate to it? How have you experienced it?