MALIGNANT TUMOR DISSOLVED

In 1986 I was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in my breast. Because I had been going through a very stressful time (a long relationship had just ended and a close family member was in serious legal trouble), I was not surprised to have yet another calamity in my life. Nevertheless, I wanted a second opinion, and got not one but six doctors who verified this condition. The two surgeons strongly advised me to have my breast removed. I would not consent to this, but agreed to have the tumor surgically removed. About a week before the surgery, I told a friend (who had been raised as a Christian Scientist) about my condition. She pointed out that I'd seen six doctors and that perhaps I should talk to a Christian Science practitioner.

With nothing to lose, I agreed, and met with a very smart and very dear woman on two occasions. Impressed by what we had talked about, I said as I was leaving, "I'll see you again after I have my tumor removed." She said—or I thought she said: "You don't have a tumor."

Indeed, when I woke after the surgery, the nurses were gathered about my bed exclaiming that it was benign. When the surgeon arrived, she said not only was it benign, it wasn't even a tumor—just a mass of something that was already dissolving. Two weeks later, during a follow-up visit to her office, she was closely examining the mammogram, shaking her head in wonder and saying that she just didn't understand it.

I didn't understand it either, but I thought this was something I needed to check out. I went to the nearest Christian Science Reading Room, and for the first time in my life, I read the Bible. And I read Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The more I read, the more I discovered. I discovered that I did not have to spend my years in fear and anxiety, worried about the next thing that was going to go wrong with my body. What a joy to learn that things did not have to go wrong. God made me healthy and whole.

When I returned to see the practitioner and told her that I thought she had said "You don't have a tumor," she looked at me in surprise, replying that she had never said that. Wherever that voice came from, it was what I needed to hear.

Leonora Thuna
New York, New York

Excerpted from a testimony originally published in the Christian Science Sentinel (April 3, 2000).