Joni Eareckson Tada announces she's cancer-free: 'quite miraculous'
Joni Eareckson Tada shared “miraculous” health news, announcing she’s cancer-free after being diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time in late November.
On Tuesday, the author, speaker and founder of Joni and Friends shared a photo of herself holding a sign reading, “All Clear” on her website and Facebook page.
“Proverbs 25:25 says, ‘Good news from far away is like cold water to a thirsty soul.’ That perfectly describes Ken (Tada’s husband) and me today,” she captioned the photo.
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Tada said that she and her husband were prepared to “gladly take whatever from the hand of God, even if it were from his left hand.”
“But the Lord was gracious and heard the desire of our hearts – last Friday's PET scan shows that my second tumor that was removed last November… did not metastasize! Given the aggressive nature of that reoccurring cancer, this news is quite miraculous,” she wrote.
“So, THANK you for lifting us up before the Lord Jesus,” she continued. “For now, we have been spared of more cancer battles. We humbly realize that may well change in the future; but for today, for now, we are rejoicing in those wonderful words from my medical oncologist: ‘all clear!’ Onward and upward…”
Tada, 69, was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer eight years ago. After undergoing a mastectomy and chemotherapy treatment, she was declared cancer-free.
In November, she underwent tests on a small nodule that had developed over the site of her mastectomy. After biopsies, doctors discovered a small cancerous tumor within the nodule.
Shortly after her diagnosis, Tada explained that while she would love to be in Heaven, she believes it’s more “needful for Christ” that she remains on earth, as there are millions of people with disabilities who don’t know Jesus.
“And that’s why I show up at work every single day at Joni and Friends,” she said. “It breaks my heart to think the suffering a person in a wheelchair is going through is only an omen of even greater suffering to come if he doesn’t know Christ.”
In May, Tada announced she’d returned to Joni and Friends full time following a series of radiation treatments.
“My limited lung capacity certainly hasn’t put limits on my energy, as long as I occasionally check my oxygen levels and do deep-breathing exercises,” she wrote. “True, I’m a little more susceptible to colds now, so anyone who helps me with lunch, gives me drinks of water, or puts on my lipstick has to first wash their hands. But my coworkers are more than glad to comply if it keeps me healthy.”
“Most of all, I cannot stop thanking Jesus. I keep quoting Deuteronomy 6:10-12 where God poured out one abundant blessing after another on His people…as long as they were careful not to forget the Lord (v. 12).”
In addition to founding Joni and Friends in 1979, Tada has also served as a senior associate for disability concerns for the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and an adviser to the American Leprosy Mission and the National Institute on Learning Disabilities.
