Today’s Story in our Kidney Cancer Awareness Campaign is truly unique story of spontaneous remission. For the skeptics among us it is a story that one would expect to find in the sensationalist headlines of the tabloids in the supermarket checkout lanes. However, the story is real; I have known Paul for almost a decade and have personally spoken to one of the two renal cell specialists involved in his case. In 2007 Cure Today observed that the medical community rarely encounters this phenomenon and considers it an anomaly with less than 25 cases per year reported out of the 1.5 million cases (1.7 million in 2017) of cancer being diagnosed. While most of the cases reported involve the regression of metastatic lesions, with a significant number of those cases being kidney cancer, virtually none of them are of the primary and metastatic sites. Here is Paul’s Story.
– Michael B. Lawing, editor of the KCCure Kidney Cancer Awareness Campaign
My survivor story is different than most. In April 1999, I retired from my factory job at the age of 50 with 32 years of service. A week after I retired, cancer was found in one kidney, both lungs and liver. I was told I only had a 15 percent to 20 percent chance of recovery. On Father’s Day my wife and I drove to Saint Stephen’s Church in Streator, IL. This Church is where a woman took Polaroid pictures of a 4’high Virgin Mary statue during a May Crowning Ceremony and in one of the photos the figure of a bearded man can be seen standing beside the statue. Many people believe this is Jesus. Since then, thousands of visitors from all across the area and nearby states come to pray.
When we arrived, there were only two empty chairs left inside. As we sat and said the Rosary, a feeling came over me. I felt very calm and relaxed. A few weeks later I went to the medical center to meet with my doctor to discuss my latest x-rays. When we got there, five doctors were in the room laughing and joking around. They had the latest x-rays hanging on the wall next to a older x-ray. The new one had no tumors visible and the baseball size tumor on the kidney was gone; only a scab on top of the right kidney was left. All the cancer was gone. The doctors called it a spontaneous remission. They said they only saw one other case like mine. I never had one treatment or operation; they said my immune system kicked in to destroy the cancer. I could not believe I got cancer. I would get up every day at 5AM before work, and go to the gym. I also played softball three times a week and played in softball tournaments every weekend. Plus I was only 50 years old. But I kept a positive attitude and prayed a lot.
I feel very blessed and lucky. It will be 19 years in June being NED. I would have missed a ton of things from my family. I got to see my son get married. And I was best man for his wedding. I got to see my two favorite Grandchildren get married. And have been blessed with four Great-Grand Children. My life has been very fulfilling.
