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CBN.com – It was November of 2002. Andy Delbridge thought he had a sinus infection. Then other, more unusual symptoms appeared. He got lost coming home from work.
“I ended up in a small town outside of Raleigh. I called [my wife] Nancy and said, ‘I have no idea how I got here, but I’m here, and I’m not sure how to get back.’ A day later I came home, and I got lost in my subdivision.”
Andy, a hospital administrator, blamed his symptoms on stress. His doctor ordered an MRI. They found something much more serious.
Andy recalls, “The doc came in and said, ‘There’s a surgery in your future. I don’t know when but there’s definitely surgery.’ I said, ‘OK, what if I don’t do this surgery?’ He said, ‘You will die.’”
Andy had a grade 4 brain tumor – also known as a glioblastoma multiform tumor or GBM.
“At the time I was in shock,” says Nancy. “I could not believe what they were saying stage 4 GBM, the worse cancer known to man.”
But there was more. Cancer had also invaded one of Andy’s kidneys.
“At first I thought, I’m dead, there’s no hope, and I don’t wanna die. I just didn’t know where to go or what to do,” Andy confesses.
Most doctors considered Andy’s case hopeless. Doctor Henry Friedman of Duke University Hospital and his colleagues see things differently. They believe that hope is not just a catch phrase; it’s essential to healing.
“Hope is what gives you the strength and the fortitude to deal with an illness,” Dr. Friedman says.
Surgeons removed Andy’s brain tumor. Then months of radiation and chemotherapy took it’s toll. Andy says, “I remember the day I got on my knees and was crying to God, ‘Please, please heal me. I need Your healing. I need Your touch, Father.’ I just cried out.”
Nancy adds, “I felt like having panic attacks. How am I going to care for these two little boys? How am I going to get a job? The weight of the world [was] on me. It was a day by day thing. It wasn’t so easy. It was moment to moment.”
They needed a hope even the medical profession couldn’t offer. They found it in God’s Word.
“I had a very weak faith, but I knew if had faith of a mustard seed I could make that faith grow,” Andy says. “So it grew and grew, but I had to nourish it, and that was through the Bible…”
“I was on a emotional roller coaster,” Nancy says. “I got into the Word and that was my rock. Jesus was my rock.”
They and thousands of others prayed.
Nancy says, “I trusted God, but I kept begging for that miracle. I felt like a little child just begging and nagging. ‘Please, God take this away. Please heal my husband.’ I felt like His little child, and He was carrying me.”
Eventually, Andy’s cancerous kidney was also removed. For two years he lived with no sign of cancer. Then in 2005, they received devastating news.
“They said there were two nodules close to Andy’s heart,” Nancy recalls. “They could not biopsy because of danger to puncture heart and lungs. The other one was on other kidney.”
Andy says, “I thought, My God, how much can it keep going on? Please God, please God. I rebuke this cancer.”
“So we continued to pray,” Nancy says. “They decided to do a CAT scan five weeks later. When they did the CAT scan, they were all gone. All three nodules gone, and they remain clear now. That was the greatest. Thank You, Jesus. Without surgery without chemotherapy, God did it. What man couldn’t do, God did.”
Today Andy has a clean bill of health with no sign of cancer. He’s back to his favorite pastime, playing basketball with his two boys. He also loves talking about the miracle God gave him and his family.
“To me there’s hope,” he shares. “Hope equals faith, and faith equals God. You bring those together, and God is there for us. He is there for you every day.”
His wife says, “Jesus loves [you], and there’s nothing too big or too small that He’s not concerned with. He’s our best friend, and He came to rescue us from sin and sickness. That’s right now.”
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
