I can’t tell my story without remembering one special friend. Mandy moved into my neighborhood a few months before my breast cancer diagnosis. She and her husband and ten year old daughter rented a house near us. Mandy loved to share her family’s trials and triumphs with me. She had three dogs. Now, this may sound like an ordinary family on the surface, but consider that Mandy’s tales included that she healed her husband of brain cancer. Mandy reported routinely using prayer and laying of hands to heal various illnesses of her people and her pets.

Mandy had told me many entertaining stories by the time I found out that I had cancer. She called me one day in a panic, "Spotty is ill! He isn’t acting like himself!.. She was loud and out of breath. "I need to get him to the vet now. Can you help me?" I went right over to her house. Mandy was in tears. Spotty seemed fine to me. I questioned how he was behaving differently than usual. Mandy gave details. "See, he is just sitting there looking at us. A while ago he was running through the house. He never does that." I’m sure I made a face or shook my head doubtfully, because Mandy vehemently assured me that she was loosing her dog. I thought that she might be loosing something else, but her distress was real. We arrived at the veterinarian’s office within ten minutes. He saw Spotty immediately. He found nothing grossly wrong with the dog. Dr. Pricey even told Mandy that she was so anxious that Spotty was probably picking up on her behavior and behaving abnormally. All the way home, Mandy denounced Dr. Pricey’s diagnosis and prediction that Spotty would be just fine.

About a week passed and I called to check on Spotty, and Mandy. We greeted each other over the phone and Mandy said," I’m sorry not to have been in touch, but I couldn’t save Spotty and I’ve been such a mess." I sat there, just looking at my phone, actually thinking it was a joke. No, Spotty had actually died!

I saw Mandy or spoke with her about once a week. When I was diagnosed with cancer I didn’t tell her, because she was still occasionally crying over Spotty. It also crossed my mind that she might decide that she, rather than conventional medicine, would be my best chance for recovery. It was just a hunch, but I did not want to deal with it. I was in a highly charged emotional state, and I was busy taking in information about the conventional healing methods available to me.

The Christmas holidays passed and I was going to begin treatments when I decided that I needed to disclose my diagnosis to Mandy. I wanted her support as a caring friend. She was very surprised and offered prayer along with her healing touch. I was grateful and felt her desire to help me. A few days later Mandy came for a visit and abruptly stated that she did not want me to think that she could cure me. I hardly knew what to say. I told her that I did believe in the power of positive energy and I felt better just talking to her. I regret that after that visit she always spoke to me as if I was critically ill. Does she know something that I don’t? She did encourage me to obtain recommended treatments.

Mandy moved across town, but we continue to keep in touch by phone. Whenever I tell her that I am well she says, "I have healed many people", and I assure her that she has also helped to heal me, and that I have the strength and ability to sort out what’s positive and what is negative in regard to my own personal Cancer.