Medford, Ore.– “It’s really true, it’s one of the best thing to ever happen in my life,” Nancy Duff says of her breast cancer journey. “Because it truly brought my Lord closer to me.”
Nancy’s faith has been a big part of her life for a long time, but it was on a afternoon in 2014 when her faith deepened. A burning sensation sent her to the doctor for a mammogram.
“You could see in her demeanor there was something. It was what she wasn’t saying that led my to believe there is something going on here,” Nancy recalls.
Her suspicion was confirmed. She had breast cancer. At the age of 64 with no doctor and no health insurance, Nancy had a lot to figure out and fast.
What happened next is what Nancy likes to call her miracle story. In just a matter of days she signed up for Medicare, was approved for secondary insurance, found a doctor and a surgeon, and had her mammograms paid for in full.”
“I thought boy my luck is running good, thank you God.”
When everything was said and done, Nancy would owe only $1,000 out of pocket.
“Isn’t that amazing?”
But she still needed to decide how she would treat the lump doctors had found in her breast.
“I went home and a friend had given me this book,” says Nancy. “[It says] bring me all your needs your hopes, your fears. Commit everything into my care.”
“I knew right then what my answer was going to be,” she says.
Nancy opted against chemo and radiation, but would get a mastectomy.
“That was two years ago,” Nancy explains. “And I am still cancer free because of God.”
She also credits friends who shared their own breast cancer stories.
“The problem is when I got this cancer I didn’t even know what questions to even ask.”
That’s why when Nancy saw Katelyn Carey on NBC5 news a few years ago sharing her breast cancer book project that would help encourage people who were diagnosed, Nancy knew she wanted to help.
“The next thing I know I’m in a book,” she exclaims. “With my shirt off!”
For Nancy, these images, her miracles, and her faith are all a part of her story.
“I don’t know why I got breast cancer, who knows why? But I do know that I am supposed to talk about it to whoever.”
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