After you turn 60

My Bible: reasons to believe in the power of the Bible

‘After you turn 60, you get a bowel screening every two years. It came around and I did it. I was sent for tests. After three months, they said that I had stage four cancer with secondaries in my lung and liver. It was a terrific shock, because I didn’t know that anything was wrong. 

‘I can’t say enough about the hospital. It was the NHS at its best. The plan was to shrink the tumours with chemotherapy and then do surgery. That’s what happened, starting with my liver, then my bowels and then my lungs. 

‘The next year there was no sign of the cancer, so they tried to put my bowel back together and I’ve tested negative ever since. But it was a stressful few years, I must say. 

‘Psalm 121 kept me going. It begins, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” I knew that, whatever happened, I was in God’s hands. It made me feel that I didn’t have to worry, God had got his eye on me. It helped me feel that I was never alone. When I was awake in the night in the hospital, I would pray for everyone in the hospital, and not feel alone. 

‘I count my blessings now for all the things since then. My daughter has married. I have three grandchildren. But then, I wasn’t worried about the future, because I was in God’s hands. 

‘I haven’t always been that philosophical. There have been ups and downs in my faith. But that sense of not worrying has stayed since then.’

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