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!!
