The Cancerous Tumor Disappeared Through Dorothy’s Intercession
Dorothy Day
Sarah Maple of Antlers, Oklahoma recently visited Casa Juan Diego with Richard Fossey and his wife Kim. She shared the story of the healing of her cancerous brain tumor through the intercession of Dorothy Day. She glowed as she recounted the events.
It was Richard Fossey who asked Dorothy’s prayers and her healing power for Sarah. He wrote to the Houston Catholic Worker when he began his prayers and we published the letter in the December 2009 issue.
Sarah and the Fosseys came to Casa Juan Diego on the occasion of the recent visit of Martha Hennessy, one of Dorothy Day’s grand-children.
Richard, who grew up in Oklahoma and later lived in Houston, was a volunteer at Casa Juan Diego before he moved to the Dallas area. He teaches now at the University of North Texas, and is the editor of the Journal, Catholic Southwest. Richard believes that Dorothy’s canonization would be crucial for the Catholic Church in the United States.
Sarah’s brief testimony follows:
by Sarah Maple
On May 15, 2009, a neurosurgeon at Mayo Clinic told me, “You have on average two years to live.” Then I was introduced to “my” neuro-oncologist. This is something you don’t want—your “own” neuro-oncologist. The biopsy of my brain tissue showed that I had a Level III glioma. I started on the protocol for treatment—33 sessions of radiation straight to my brain, and chemotherapy. At the end of that treatment, the doctor was unsure, because of the radiation’s effect, if the tumor was growing or not, but his judgment was that it was growing. While I was taking the above treatment, Mayo started a clinical trial combining Avastin (an approved cancer drug not approved for brain cancer) and other cancer treatment drugs. I started the clinical trial on October 2009 and continued through August 2010. I stopped treatment because Dr. Jan Buckner not only thought that the tumor had stopped growing, but had actually disappeared.
Shortly after my diagnosis in 2009, I had decided to contact an old friend, Dr. Richard Fossey. We both grew up Protestant in a small Oklahoma town. I had read that he had converted to Catholicism and I felt the need to tell him that I didn’t have long to live. After hearing my news, he began to pray to Dorothy Day.
Toward the end of 2010, the Mayo doctors began telling me that the tumor had quit growing. In June of 2011, they began saying it was “gone”. In August 2011, I was told that not only was there no tumor growth, but the scar hole was “collapsing and holding less dye”.
Others on Avastin or in the trial with me have either died or are now on hospice. All have suffered terrible deficits of loss of eyesight, hearing, vision, mobility, comprehension and processing thought. Other than memory lapses, “stuck thinking” and some fatigue, I am fully functioning and feel great. I try to meet each day with joy and gratefulness.
Thank you God, Dorothy Day, Mayo and Richard Fossey.
Houston Catholic Worker, Vol. XXXI, No. 5, November-December 2011
