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News Anchor/Reporter, 20+ years, currently with ABC 33/40
Nat’l media awards: Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Fdtn, Edward R. Murrow Award for radio & TV journalism, American Cancer Society Award for best TV coverage
B.A., Univ. of South Florida, Mass Communications
Husband: Doug; Mother of 3 sons
CBN.com – Ladun, an ABC Birmingham, Ala., newscaster, talks to 700 Club co-host Kristi Watts about her diagnosis and recovery.
KRISTI WATTS: You are a successful journalist, mother of three boys, and a wife, but all of a sudden you found out you had breast cancer. What was going through your mind?
BRENDA LADUN: Shock. You ask yourself when you hear the word "cancer," am I going to die? How long am I going to have here on this earth? It immediately took me to my knees and I knew that I had to hold on to God and let Him lead me through this. I had been a Christian, but this was a whole new experience because it led me closer to him.
KRISTI WATTS: Before we talk about your journey with the Lord and how He helped you through this, you actually did something courageous. You went public with this. As a television news anchor, you have a public persona but your life is not necessarily public. But you went public with your breast cancer. Why did you do that?
BRENDA LADUN: My mother always said, 'Be care what you pray for or ask for.' A month before I found the lump, I said a prayer. I said, 'Lord, I am so blessed. I have a great husband, a great home, a great career, great kids. I feel like there is something else out there that I am supposed to do for you.' At the time I was teaching Sunday School to 4-year-olds at my church, but I just had this burning desire that there was something else out there. When I was diagnosed, that is when I knew what my mission was, that there were others with cancer right then that didn't know it. I felt great and I had cancer growing inside of me. I had to get that word out about breast cancer and also to encourage people that life goes on and with Christ there is hope.
KRISTI WATTS: Let's talk about your faith and how your relationship with the Lord helped you through the discovery of breast cancer and the recovery.
BRENDA
LADUN: I knew that when they said that I definitely had breast cancer,
I had to ask them six times, 'Are you sure it is not benign? Please say it
is benign.' But it wasn't. I had to come home and tell my children not only
that I had breast cancer, but that the trip to Disney was off. So you can
imagine at 7, 4, and 16 months, that was pretty tough for them. I had to give
them more than just, 'Hey, Mommy is going to be OK,' because I didn't know.
None of us really knows what God holds for us tomorrow. I had always avoided
the subject of death with my children. When the goldfish died, I ran out and
got a new goldfish. I had to sit down with my 7-year-old and my 4-year-old
(the 16-month-old didn't understand) and tell them that God would wrap His
arms around us and that He would be there when Mommy was in the hospital for
a week and when Mommy was lying at home on the bed and was tired and hurting.
He would be there to hold us and to carry us through, and we didn't have to
fear because we could give our fears to Him. When we worried about something,
we could say, 'Lord, take this worry off of me. You handle it because I certainly
can't handle it.' I couldn't handle it myself. I don't know how anyone can
handle treatment and surgery without coming to Christ and having that strength.
KRISTI WATTS: Often as Christians, when something happens to us, when adversity strikes our own homes, like sickness, we think, 'Lord, heal us. You are the Great Physician. You are the Great Healer.' When that doesn't happen, sometimes we have the tendency to second-guess our own walk with the Lord. We say, 'Lord, have I done something? Is that why I am not healed?' Did you go through that?
BRENDA LADUN: I said that prayer. I said, 'Lord, please don't let this be happening. Heal me immediately.' When I was saying that prayer, I almost felt like the answer was 'No, Brenda, this is something that you have to go through.' I even had people praying that my hair wouldn't come out. Later I thought, No, this is something that the Lord led me through and carried me through because I am supposed to help other people and I am supposed to do this mission. The hair did come out. Hair is supposed to be pretty important to us women, but I found out something very important: It's not about good hair days or bad hair days; it is about what is inside of us and what we give to other people.
KRISTI WATTS: Let's talk about your husband.
BRENDA
LADUN: He was wonderful. He is a Christian man as well. He was by my side.
Of course, men want to fix everything. He said, 'Don't cry. Don't be upset.'
But my surgeon, Dr. Susan Winchester, said, 'Look, it is OK to cry. It is
part of the healing process.' They have done studies that show that tears
are actually good for the immune system. Job cried when he lost his children
and he mourned, but he never blamed God. That is something that I didn't do
because I was holding onto Him so tightly. I didn't blame Him. I just said,
'Lord, please carry me through this.' Yeah, you ask the question, 'Why did
this happen? Did I eat something? Did I do something?' But I am not a smoker.
I didn't live a lifestyle where people would say that I got cancer from doing
this or that. Sometimes bad things happen, but a lot of good can come out
of those bad things.
KRISTI WATTS: Thank you so much for being with us. This is a blessing.
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
