ID :
99412
Mon, 01/11/2010 - 23:55
Auther :

Mother Mary's miracle survivor opens up

Miracle cancer survivor Kathleen Evans says she has no idea why she was touched by
Mother Mary MacKillop, and probably won't know until she finally gets "upstairs".
The NSW woman, whose dramatic recovery from lung cancer was confirmed as Mother
Mary's second miracle, has described herself as an ordinary churchgoer.
Surrounded by a throng of reporters at Sydney's Mary MacKillop Chapel, the
66-year-old said she was just an average mother-of-five and grandmother to 20, who
just happened to be touched by the rebel nun.
Mrs Evans' identity had remained a secret until Monday, when she spoke publicly for
the first time about her miracle cure.
In 1993, then aged 49, Mrs Evans was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, which
was soon found to have spread and caused a secondary cancer on her brain.
The former smoker refused radiotherapy treatment and was given just months to live
by doctors.
But with constant prayers to Mother Mary from family and the local parish, and
wearing a relic containing a piece of the soon-to-be saint's clothing, she recovered
from the disease.
"Wow" was down-to-earth Mrs Evans' reaction when doctors first told her the cancer
had disappeared.
"When he (the doctor) was so excited the first question I asked him was, 'had it
shrunk', and he said 'no, it's gone'," said Mrs Evans, who was flanked by husband
Barry, daughter Annette and son Luke at Monday's press conference.
"Once he told me it was gone that was it. I've never looked back and thought I might
have cancer again, or it might come back."
"I won't get cancer. I'll die of a heart attack," she joked.
In December last year, Pope Benedict XVI confirmed her recovery as Mother Mary's
second miracle, paving the way for the canonisation to make her Australia's first
saint.
Her first miracle, the curing of a woman who had leukaemia in 1961, was accepted by
the Vatican in 1993.
Mrs Evans, who hails from the Hunter region, said that after years of anonymity she
was overwhelmed by all the attention she was now getting.
"I'm not one to be on my knees all the time. I'm just an ordinary person," Mrs Evans
said of her faith.
"If I miss a Mass, I don't think I'm going to go to hell or anything like that."
Mrs Evans said she didn't know why she had been saved.
"When I finally do get upstairs, it will be the first question I ask," she said.
Mrs Evans said she had felt a presence in her Windale home during her fight with
cancer.
She still wears the relic - "it's on my bra" - and still felt the presence of Mother
Mary in her life.
"I have many, many times felt Mary MacKillop's presence," she said.
"I do feel her presence. I do feel that she is with me. I feel she is praying for me.
"I talk to her as if she is a person. It's like when you lose someone in your family
and you still talk to that person."
Mrs Evans said she felt privileged to be part of Mary MacKillop's canonisation.
She hopes to travel to Rome for the ceremony, expected later in the year.
"It makes me very humble," she said.
"Australia's first saint - it's pretty big."
Mary MacKillop died in 1909 at the age of 67, and was beatified by Pope John Paul II
in 1995 after her first miracle was decreed.
She fought many battles with the Catholic Church when establishing the Sisters of St
Joseph, and the dozens of schools they created for less fortunate children - earning
her a reputation as a rebel nun.



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