Faith and Cancer
- "Good Morning America" host Robin Roberts is an influential source of positivity for the cancer community.
- Roberts is a breast cancer survivor. Her fiancé, Amber Laign, was also diagnosed with the disease in 2021.
- Roberts shared an encouraging message on social media, telling people to find hope in faith during challenges.
- Researchers who studied the relationship between praying and life expectancy in cancer patients found the power of prayer helps withstand pain and suffering.
- In a study published in Cancer, 69% of cancer patients say that they rely on faith throughout cancer treatment, and use prayer as a way to call for good health.
“Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts, 62, is a prayerful cancer survivor who has said she looked to God as a source of strength. She’s spreading her positivity with her followers, sharing a message of encouragement to find hope in faith through their own challenges.
"You have to keep your hope stirred up," Roberts said to her "Glam-Fam" a cohort of her TV makeup artists and her social media followers.
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Roberts wrapped up her joyous and hopeful message with a final prayer before sending the Glam-Fam out into the world to take on the day's challenges.
"Because you are supernatural, we can hope in faith even when we can find no other reason for hope…we believe and declare that we will not be moved by what is not happening. We will be patient and prayerful," Roberts said.
Roberts has shared even more moving messages with her followers.
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The news anchor's hope in God and faith helped her find strength during her own breast cancer journey, which began in 2007 after discovering a lump on her breast while preparing for a news segment urging women to perform self-exams.
Roberts invited her legions of fans and supporters to embark on her cancer journey with her. Luckily for the positive breast cancer warrior, she was able to treat her cancer with surgery.
In addition to breast cancer, Roberts had MDS, known as myelodysplastic syndrome a rare type of blood cancer where abnormal cells form in the body's bone marrow. She ultimately underwent a life-saving bone marrow transplant.
Roberts' endless positivity also helped someone near and dear to her, her partner Amber Laign, who finished treatment for breast cancer last year.
Laign, 48, revealed her diagnosis in 2021 and the couple has been very supportive of each other throughout their cancer journeys.
In a past interview with Ellen Degeneres, Roberts said, "I didn't realize how much I had blocked out during my journey, and it was because of sweet Amberbecause she protected me and navigated for me. So, I'm doing the same thing for her."
How Your Faith Can Improve the Cancer Journey
Many cancer warriors turn to their faith to help them stay motivated through intensive rounds of chemotherapy and surgery.
In a study published in Cancer, 69% of cancer patients say that they rely on faith throughout cancer treatment, and use prayer as a way to call for good health.
Researchers who studied the relationship between praying and life expectancy in cancer patients found the power of prayer helps withstand pain and suffering.
"The patients can overcome their illnesses with the help of praying and of other religious actions, thus helping them gain more power and being able to control their illnesses, as they know a lot about their sickness therefore, they can stand the pain and suffering and become hopeful to future," researchers N. Hekmati Pour and H. Hojjati said in the Journal of Medicine and Life.
Power of Positivity During Cancer Battle
- ‘America’s Got Talent’ Singer Ray Singleton Brings Wife Battling Brain Cancer And The Judges to Tears During Audition; The Power of Positivity
- ‘It’s Changed My Perspective’: Cancer Surgeon Becomes a Lung Cancer Patient, Loses a Lung, and Then Runs a 5K; The Power of Positivity
- ‘We’re Awakening That Sense Of Sexual Prowess!’ Breast Cancer Survivor, 37, Creates Post Surgery Lingerie Collection To Promote Body Positivity
- Breast Cancer Survivor Rebecca King Crews, 55, is ‘Reachin for the Top’ in Her Music Video & Spreading Positivity Online
WATCH: Religion helps these survivors get through difficult times.
Maintaining a Positive Mindset
Keeping a positive, grateful attitude through cancer has been shown to help the journey, too, according to anecdotal evidence from experts.
Cedars-Sinai colorectal surgeon, Dr. Zuri Murrell tells, SurvivorNet in an earlier interview, "My patients who thrive, even with stage 4 cancer, from the time that they, about a month after they're diagnosed, I kind of am pretty good at seeing who is going to be OK. Now doesn't that mean I'm good at saying that the cancer won't grow.”
"But I'm pretty good at telling what kind of patient are going to still have this attitude and probably going to live the longest, even with bad, bad disease. And those are patients who, they have gratitude in life."
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