Cancer cured by praying to Blessed Mary MacKillop

Sceala Clann T.D. Location: Belfast and Donegal.

Kathleen Evans believes that her cancer was cured by praying to Blessed Mary MacKillop. The Pope accepts this miracle.

Miracle woman

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By: Paul Dobbyn
Saintly: Blessed Mary Mackillop
QUEENSLAND Josephite Sister Annette Arnold had several reasons for experiencing "awe" at a press conference when a NSW woman revealed she had been the recipient of the second miracle which cleared the way for Blessed Mary MacKillop to be made a saint.

"First of all there was Kathleen Evans' immense humility as she described her miraculous cure," Sr Arnold said.

"Then there was the complete reverence and respect shown by the secular media gathered in the Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel in North Sydney as Kathleen told her story.

"There was not one devil's advocate amongst the media.

"Also there was an incredible sense of Mary's presence at the conference."

Sr Arnold, formerly a member of the Josephites' Queensland provincial leadership team and now part of national leadership, attended the press conference on Monday with congregational leader Sr Anne Derwin and Sr Sheila McCreanor.

Also present were Mrs Evans' husband Barry and other family members.

Sr Arnold agreed Mrs Evans was an absolutely perfect recipient for the miracle because her story would resonate with many ordinary Australians.

"Mary MacKillop would have a huge smile on her face at the humility of this woman as she told her story," she said.

"Kathleen began by saying 'I'm very, very ordinary'.

"She reflected Mary's spirit throughout the press conference."

At the conference Mrs Evans, 66, from Windale, Lake Macquarie, in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, spoke publicly for the first time about her miracle cure from inoperable cancer of the right lung and brain.

Prior to this her identity had been a closely guarded secret.

However, Sr Arnold said Mrs Evans had always wanted to tell her story.

"She was free to do so once Pope Benedict XVI confirmed her recovery as Blessed Mary's second miracle, paving the way for (Mary's) canonisation to become Australia's first saint," she said.

Mrs Evans, now mother of five and grandmother to 20, told those gathered at the press conference how she had smoked since the age of 16 but had given up in 1990 three years before she got the devastating news that at age 49 she had cancer.

She was told that the cancer of the right lung was inoperable.

Soon after she received further shocking news that a secondary cancer had been found in her brain and that chemotherapy and radiotherapy were considered pointless.

"All I had left was prayer," she said.

After returning to her Windale home, she prayed constantly for Mary MacKillop's intercession and also wore a relic containing a piece of the Josephite co-founder's clothing.

Far from getting worse, her condition improved and after four months her doctor called for more tests.

Ten months after her original diagnosis, she was told there was no sign of any cancer - just some scarring where the tumours had been.

She said her first reaction when the doctors first told her the cancer was gone was "wow!"

She also told the press conference that she felt privileged to be part of Mary MacKillop's canonisation, expected later this year, and that it made her "very humble".

Mrs Evans was keen to get the announcement out of the way to get on with what she sees as her primary goal - to spread the good news of her miracle to fellow Australians, Sr Arnold said.

"Kathleen is particularly keen to reach young people and will probably be visiting schools," she said.

"She has also many wonderful gifts to support cancer sufferers and others, having been a cancer support worker.

"The morning after her press conference Kathleen was in the Mary MacKillop chapel and many people approached her now her identity was out in the open.

"Many were congratulating her; others were coming for support.

"Kathleen's story has the ability to move many people.
"It also serves to remind us that our faith journey is also our life journey."
catholicleader.com.au/news.php/top-stories/miracle-woman_54513

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Kathleen Evans praying at Mary MacKillop's tomb.
THE MIRACLE
Personal story of Kathleen Evans
whose cure has been accepted as a Miracle by Rome

My name is Kathleen Evans. I’m married to Barry. I’m a mother of 5 and a grandmother of 20 including 2 great grandchildren. I come from the small town of Windale in Lake Macquarie.

In the 1990’s, I was diagnosed with a non small carcinoma in my right lung.
After x-rays and scans were taken, my GP sent me to a heart, lung surgeon. He put me in hospital for a biopsy.
The surgeon explained that he hoped to remove my right lung as my youngest child was only 13.
And by taking the lung out, it might give me 5 or 6 years to see him through high school.
What he found was that the cancer was very aggressive and had spread into my glands. He was concerned that one of the glands was too close to the aorta.
He also asked for an x-ray of my head to be taken. He found that a secondary had started at the bottom of my brain. This put paid to any operation.
I was then sent to a chemotherapist who gave me no hope of the chemotherapy working.

The next step was radiotherapy, only to be told that any ray treatment would help with the side effects and perhaps give me a couple more weeks at the end.

For this to happen, I would have to go to the hospital for 10 consecutive days. I was too sick for that.

Besides the odds were just not worth it. I was only given a couple of months at the most to live.

So I said thanks, but no thanks. I went back to my doctor and asked him to see me through until the end. All this took 1 month.

All I had left was prayer. I was a great believer in prayer. The next few weeks were hard times.

I was unable to stay out of bed for any length of time. I would get the shakes so bad that my husband would have to lay on me to ease them down.

I couldn’t bath or shower myself or even use the toilet on my own. I suffered from night sweats and found it hard to breathe. I was in a bad way.

Where did Mary come into my life?

I had a friend who lived in the Hunter Valley. She gave me a picture of Mary MacKillop. Attached to the back, was a piece of Mary’s clothing. This is called a relic. I wore this relic on my nightie and later on my clothing. It never left me.

She also gave me some prayer cards that had been given to her by the Sisters here at Mount Street.

They were given out to all my family and friends asking them to pray the same prayer, asking Mary to pray with us to God for nine days on my behalf.

Instead of my health deteriorating, I started to get stronger. I was even able to stay out of bed longer.

Within 2 weeks, I was able to go on a weekend retreat. Now I wasn’t jumping over the moon, but I was able to attend every session over that weekend and I have never looked back.

My doctor wanted me to have more tests done about 4 months later because as he said, I just should not be here.

It wasn’t until another 3 months, which was 10 months from being diagnosed, that I went back to have those tests,

To be told there was no sign of cancer anywhere, just scarring where the cancer had been. So after all this time I can say I’m still here and very well and enjoying life to the fullest.
http://www.sosj.org.au/

Mary MacKillop's Story

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1842 - 1909

On January 15, 1842 Mary MacKillop was born of Scottish parents, Alexander MacKillop and Flora MacDonald in Fitzroy, Victoria. This was less than seven years after Faulkner sailed up the Yarra, when Elizabeth Street was a deep gully and Lonsdale Street was still virgin bush. A plaque in the footpath now marks the place of her birth in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.

Mary, the eldest of eight children, was well educated by her father who spent some years studying for the priesthood in Rome but through ill health had returned to his native Scotland until 1835 when he migrated to Australia with his parents. Unfortunately, he lacked financial awareness, so the family was often without a home of their own, depending on friends and relatives and frequently separated from one another.

From the age of sixteen, Mary earned her living and greatly supported her family, as a governess, as a clerk for Sands and Kenny (now Sands and MacDougall), and as a teacher at the Portland school. While acting as a governess to her uncle's children at Penola, Mary met Father Julian Tenison Woods who, with a parish of 22,000 square miles/56,000 square kilometres, needed help in the religious education of children in the outback. At the time Mary's family depended on her income so she was not free to follow her dream. However, in 1866, greatly inspired and encouraged by Father Woods, Mary opened the first Saint Joseph's School in a disused stable in Penola.

Young women came to join Mary, and so the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph was begun. In 1867, Mary was asked by Bishop Shiel to come to Adelaide to start a school. From there, the Sisters spread, in groups to small outback settlements and large cities around Australia, New Zealand, and now in Peru, Brazil and refugee camps of Uganda and Thailand. Mary and these early Sisters, together with other Religious Orders and Lay Teachers of the time, had a profound influence on the forming of Catholic Education as we have come to know and experience it today. She also opened Orphanages, Providences to care for the homeless and destitute both young and old, and Refuges for ex-prisoners and ex-prostitutes who wished to make a fresh start in life.

Throughout her life, Mary met with opposition from people outside the Church and even from some of those within it. In the most difficult of times she consistently refused to attack those who wrongly accused her and undermined her work, but continued in the way she believed God was calling her and was always ready to forgive those who wronged her.

Throughout her life Mary suffered ill health. She died on August 8, 1909 in the convent in Mount Street, North Sydney where her tomb is now enshrined. Since then the Congregation has grown and now numbers about 1200, working mainly in Australia and New Zealand but also scattered singly or in small groups around the world. The "Brown Joeys" may be seen in big city schools, on dusty bush tracks, in modern hospitals, in caravans, working with the "little ones" of God - the homeless, the new migrant, the Aboriginal, the lonely and the unwanted, in direct care and in advocacy, in standing with and in speaking with. In their endeavours to reverence the human dignity of others and to change unjust structures, the Sisters and those many others who also share the Mary MacKillop spirit continue the work which she began.

This great Australian woman inspired great dedication to God's work in the then new colonies. In today's world, she stands as an example of great courage and trust in her living out of God's loving and compassionate care of those in need.
sosj.org.au/mary/mary.html
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