A miracle of healing

Over these coming days we will be posting some stories of people’s lives, and how a course which is run at St Joseph’s called Alpha is literally transforming people’s lives. Today, we hear from a young mother called Vicky…

In 2017, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It doesn’t run in my family and I was only twenty-nine years old. A week after my diagnosis, my husband and I found out I was pregnant; we were over the moon, but we realised that this had now become more of a complicated situation and my health was at risk. I’ve always had a faith but I certainly haven’t been a model Christian. After a couple of weeks, I lost that baby, and I did start to question what type of God would take away something so precious. A few months later I was told the cause of losing the baby was because I had another form of cancer called Peritoneal Mesothelioma, which is very rare but if I hadn’t lost that baby, it would not have been detected until it was too late.

I’ve got a friend who has no faith at all and she said to me one day, “Do you still believe in God after everything you’ve been through?” I remember thinking, ‘Well, I have this amazing husband and wonderful friends but this situation has become too much for me to fight on my own and I need to know there’s someone far greater than us to get me through this’.

I went on an Alpha Course organised at St Joseph’s, where you talk and listen to different people’s perspective on life and their perception of God, and, if I’m honest, I had heard you get a free meal and I did like that idea. A few weeks in, we stayed a night at Castlerigg, a retreat and conference centre in Keswick, and in those 24 hours my life changed forever.

At Castlerigg we were taken into a small chapel where we had quiet time to pray and I began praying for my husband and young daughter and that whatever was going to happen to me, that God would keep them safe. In the corner of my eye, I kept noticing a small statue of the Virgin Mary and as I started looking closely at it, I became uncontrollably emotional and I started to pray again but this time, it was like something was telling me to pray for what I really wanted deep down. Even though I knew the cancer was incurable, I just started asking God to save me and help heal my body. Then suddenly an overwhelming sense of warmth and comfort ran through my body. I instantly stopped crying and for the first time in months, I felt like everything was going to be OK. A couple of weeks earlier I had downloaded a Bible App but I had turned the notifications off. I went back to my room that night after this experience and my phone had a notification from this Bible App and it said Acts 11:14, Who shall tell you words, where by you and all your house shall be saved. Two months later, I had major surgery, a six hour operation and chemotherapy treatment. My surgeon said “I am so lucky because by some miracle, I am cured of Cancer”.

St Joseph’s is running its next Alpha Course, beginning on Thursday 14 January at 7pm online. Why not join us? From the comfort of your home you can join and watch the videos, share your own thoughts, and make new friends in what is a life-changing experience. For further details, email alphalancs@gmail.com