Torch, Summer 1999

through to encourage them to face an uncertain future . We believe that this principle is very applicable to all of us today, and it definitely is for Donna and me personally. The cause of Donna's lung cancer is still a mystery, but we have seen the Lord use it in miraculous ways. The first and most blessed result of Donna's cancer was that Donna's dad, for whom we had prayed for years, was saved three weeks after her diagnosis and is still following the Lord four years later. Our daughter, Jessica, who was 10 years old at that time, got to be an eyewitness to the number one prayer request that she had- her Papaw got saved. After that initial, joyful occurrence, we didn't see any significant events occur for a couple of years. We prayed specifically that God would open doors of ministry. We prayed that Donna would get to speak at Mother/Daughter banquets, perhaps in Ohio, maybe that we might even get to travel to Indiana or Kentucky. So we were really praying. We wanted God to get the glory through our situation. In the fall of 1996, God began opening doors beyond our wildest dreams and prayers. Donna responded to an e-mail from a writer looking for young, non– smoking women who had lung cancer, and Donna was interviewed for a number of hours. The writer pitched the [story] idea to Ladies' Home journal, and after much deliberation, they decided to let her go with this. A photographer was flown in from Philadelphia and spent four hours at our home taking 250 pictures of Donna. Having to change outfits about six times and smiling for all those pictures, Donna began to appreciate why models get paid so much. We were unaware at that time, but the reason for their delay is amazing in and of itself The reason no articles on lung cancer in women had been run up to that point in major women's magazines was due to pressure from the tobacco companies. Ladies' Home journal decided to run the article in spite of the fact that they lost thousands of dollars from tobacco advertisers boycotting them. Donna's story and only three of the 250 pictures were featured in an article on lung cancer in the September '97 issue of Ladies' Home journal magazine. Since that article, God has been doing incredible things through our cancer. Donna: Immediately after the article came out, the dam of opportunity seemed to burst. First, two newspapers servmg our area ran articles about my story being in the magazme. Then two local television stations did the same. I was also able to do a live radio broadcast from Duluth, Minnesota, during Lung Cancer Awareness Month. We were able to share our faith with one of the interviewers, who is also a physician. Later that week she called me back and asked if she could refer my name and phone number to a local man who had been recently diagnosed with lung cancer. But that was just the beginning. The journal writer referred me to the Alliance for Lung Cancer Advocacy Support and Education (ALCASE) in Vancouver, Washington. ALCASE asked if I would be willing to work with their phone buddy system. They explained that they would have other lung cancer survivors call me, and all I would have to do, in their exact words, is "share your spirit with them." They would refer me to people who were in similar situations, perhaps diagnosed at a young age, perhaps with a child similar to Jessica's age at that time, maybe somebody that was diagnosed with lung cancer that was a non-smoker, or somebody that was just going through this Torch 7