If you've been diagnosed with having cancer, Dianne Schultz of Sioux Falls offers a message of hope and faith! Dianne is a breast cancer survivor!

"I did feel like a lump in my breast. But, I just thought it was a fatty tumor. I didn't think much about it until it started getting bigger. Then I thought 'well, I better go get this checked out.' I went to the doctor and had a mammogram. The results were just as he suspected---It was cancer."

At first Dianne was overwhelmed with negativity.

"Yes I guess I thought 'I guess this is how my life is going to end.' I was kind of pondering what was happening in my body. Instead of isolating from others, I went to church on Sunday."

And that experience changed Dianne's outlook.

"I was just praying about it. Some people in our church got up and shared scripture which was in Corinthians that 'my grace is sufficient.' Then they sang a song about you're crying now but your joy shall come. I was listening to the song and the spirit just hit me. I just felt like God was saying it's going to be all right and I'm going to go through this. My grace will take me through this. Then I started reading in the Bible about Job and how he was tested. I just starting thinking of it as a Job experience."

Aside from her faith in God, Dianne had a strong support group.

"So many people reached out to me and offered so much prayer. I would go up at church and ask for prayer. The elders would pray for me and anoint me with oil. I just believed God would take me through. When I had chemo or any kind of radiation, I would say 'OK God I am doing my part. Just make this medicine work.' It did! The tumor shrunk and they were able to take it out. I had radiation and they said it's all good."

Dianne knows first hand the power of faith---as do many cancer survivors! A study by Duke University Medical Center revealed that "nearly 90 percent of patients reported using religion to some degree to cope, and more than 40 percent indicated that it was the most important factor that kept them going." Results of two national surveys published in 2010 show that "82 percent of respondents said they depend on God for help and guidance in making decisions."

With faith, Dianne, now cancer free, says nothing is impossible.

:"When I having the chemo treatments, I relied on my Bible, reading scriptures and trusting God to heal me. I just felt like that day in church everything would be all right. For that reason maybe it was to me to speak to someone going through cancer and just share my faith with them."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More From KIKN-FM / Kickin' Country 99.1/100.5