2008 Woodie Awards
The Gift
Cancer survivor helps others to succeed
Rachel Powell
Issue date: 5/12/04 Section: Features
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You carefully sip your herbal tea with a moan that warrants an Academy Award. Your red eyes droop as you hoarsely grumble about the sleepless night you just had.
And as you pop another Benadryl into your mouth, you slump hopelessly into your desk and gasp, "I think I'm dying!"
Luckily, those drama classes you took last semester did more than raise your GPA. But cheer up, Bucko. It could be worse.
Michelle Gasper, 35, knows all too well how much worse it could be. In 1998, Gasper, a wife and mother, was diagnosed with Cervical Cancer.
The good news is that with modern medical science, Gasper was able to undergo a surgery called a "radical hysterectomy," which was believed to have taken care of the disease.
The bad news, however, is that the cancer returned three years later, but Gasper holds no bitterness toward her doctors.
"They did all the tests they could," she said.
Gasper has an extremely good attitude about her experience. While she admits that it wasn't the most fun, she says that even her situation could have been a lot worse.
"God was faithful to meet all of our needs," she said of the difficulty of dealing with her disease.
She recalls times when she required constant attention and her husband needed to take off from work to take care of her.
Gasper recollects ways in which God miraculously provided for the needs of their family using friends, family, and even anonymous people.
Gasper says there would be times at the end of the month when she would realize that the rent was due the next day, and there would be a check in the mail for the exact amount.
"Every time there was a need, it was met even before I knew it was a need," she said.
Three weeks before Gasper's second diagnosis, the family had just lost a close friend to cancer.
Gasper recalls her oldest daughter, 7 at the time, asking, "Mommy, are you going to die?"
"It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do...I couldn't say no," she said.
Gasper's doctors estimated that she had 3-6 months to live and others weren't so optimistic, but she refused to think negatively.