Do You Want to be inspired to fight against Cancer?

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Julie has been an inspiration to family and friends since her diagnosis. When Ellen found out about her through Julie’s friends, she knew she had to meet her. And, in true Ellen fashion, she had a couple surprises for her!

Miriam Trejo

Just 20 days shy of her thirtieth birthday, Miriam Trejo received a diagnosis of stage III breast cancer in March 2014. Having first noticed troubling changes in her breast almost 18 months earlier, she had struggled to receive an accurate diagnosis. Initially told she was too young to be at risk for cancer and that the changes she felt were normal, she had to fight for the testing that ultimately led to the diagnosis. Now, with a diagnosis in hand, the recently married high school math teacher from El Paso, Texas, approached her birthday knowing that the year ahead would be rife with challenge.

And yet, she says, her birthday celebration was “awesome.”Miriam’s voice is filled with joy—and lingering disbelief—as she describes the surprise party that her school community put together to honor her and support her spiritually as she approached treatment: Approximately 300 students, faculty, staff, family and even some of Miriam’s former teachers gathered to wish her well and—most significantly for this committed Christian—offer up prayers for her well-being.

“I kept saying, ‘I’m not sad; I’m so happy because this has been my prayer—that our school would come together and pray for a common purpose,’ never imagining that it would be for me!” Miriam says, describing her elation on that day. “My students and coworkers began to pray for me during lunchtime, in the school courtyard, starting the day of my surgery and every week after that. Seeing the impact prayer had on my school filled me with hope and gave me the courage to fight hard.”

Miriam was lifted up in prayer by her school community, her family and countless people around her as she traveled to be treated at Cancer Treatment Centers of America^® (CTCA) in Goodyear, Arizona. Once at CTCA^®, she says, she was again made aware of the power of spiritual connection, as she met with fellow patients and with the Pastoral Care Team. Miriam and her husband, Alex, began attending church services at CTCA, and she engaged in transformativedialogue about her faith with Jeff Paparone and Nick Hill, chaplains at the hospital.

“I had felt guilty about my diagnosis,” Miriam says. “I felt like it wasn’t fair to my husband to have to go through cancer—we had been married only seven months. This wasn’t part of the plan, and I felt like he deserved better.” Through conversations with Pastor Jeff, she says, she was able to understand the sanctity of their wedding vows: “I had the realization that love is unconditional. My husband vowed to love me ‘for better or for worse, in sickness and in health.’”

And, Miriam says, insight from the Pastoral Care Team helped her view her husband’s feelings more clearly: “Pastor Jeff said, ‘Your husband has every intention to carry out his vows if you let him.’ It was hard at first, but once I stopped worrying, opened myself up and let him care for me, our relationship grew deeper and stronger as I realized just how lucky I was to have him. My appreciation for my husband has grown, and I’m so glad to have him by my side.” The perspective the Pastoral Care Team provided, through personal conversations and weekly sermons at the hospital, was invaluable, Miriam says: “Pastor Jeff and Pastor Nick traveled along with us on our journey. They always seemed to know when we needed to stop and pray.”

Having asked how she could serve God through her own challenges and pay her blessings forward, Miriam now strives to support others facing cancer. “My prayers are being answered by the opportunity to share my story,” she says. “People come up to me and tell me my story, my words, have made a difference. And I’m so glad because I know it’s the Holy Spirit working through me.”

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