“Dancing in the Moonlight for Gary Courtney and Catheryn Ireland” LLS Walk October 10th 2015

We are going to get our groove on at the annual LLS Light the Night Walk. Funding goes to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. All money goes towards research, care of victims and public consciousness of these two devastating diseases.

I would like to introduce our newest member of the Gary Courtney Cancer Awareness Team. Catheryn Ireland. She is a lovely woman who found out this year she has leukemia. I will let Catheryn introduce herself in her own words.

God, Catheryn, and CLL                                                          

March 6, 2015, it was a beautiful day, the sun beat down, I had the radio on, I was a flying!! Oh wait that is a Tom Petty song.  The sun was shining, the grass was green, but we don't have orange and palm trees here, so it was a beautiful Murray Utah day.  I had come from the Memorial for an awesome, Godly woman at church who had passed away from ovarian cancer.  Not only is her story an awesome one, but her memorial was God-filled AWESOME!!  It was definitely a Holy Spirit filled day!  The band played at her request the LIVELY version a-k-a Pentecostal style of “I’ll fly away”.  The banjo & guitar were playing hard while we clapped to the beating drum.  I think I was stomping my feet, ready to flap my arms, man, I was ready to fly!!  I was clapping, and ready to get caught up in the air when the Holy Spirit poured out on me.  WHAT A WONDERFUL FEELING!!  The room was filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit. As the song came to an end, and with so much excitement in my heart I left to learn about my own fate.  As I departed I said to myself "now it's my turn".  My girlfriend Laurie Jensen said a quick prayer for me and I was off. 

My Oncologist, a beautiful woman of Bosnian descent, gave me the news that I have CLL; Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia; a slow progressing type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow.  As I sat there silently taking this in, I was STILL and so comforted that the Holy Spirit was with me. Dr. Boric gently said “Please don’t be afraid.” I said with a very clear voice: “I’m not afraid.”  Not knowing of her beliefs I said to myself “because GOD has this!!”  I learned again that day that God is infinitely awesome! Because I WAS OKAY, I AM OKAY!!  God has this!  This past February, my regular Doctor referred me to an Oncologist to check my blood because I had severely swollen lymph nodes.  She said it could be Leukemia.  I called my sister Melissa Lenhardt and told her what Dr. Lee said. Right away she started praying for me.  Melissa is the ultimate Prayer Warrior!  She prayed in a way that really uplifted my soul that February day. As she prayed she started crying, naturally I cried too.  She said “Sis don’t be afraid, the Holy Spirit put it on my heart that you are going to be okay.”  Okay doesn’t mean that I will be free from cancer. I am not free, but I am FREE of the chains that bind me!!  God help me!  HALLELUJAH!! Thank-you Jesus! My Father is KING JESUS, and I am the daughter of Alfred and Lillian Martinez who raised me to be a fighter for a cause, to not give up, and to not take crap!!  I will do what I can in this fight against Leukemia to win souls for Christ and to fight a good fight in His glorious name!!