The Toughest Test of Faith Yet!

“I sat in my car, and I was flipping through them, and I was like, this is not mine. This isn't mine.” 

The cat scan results had come as a shock to Dawn Sherrill - 17 spots on her right lung. It had been 20 years since she smoked her last cigarette.  

“It's not mine! It's, it's, I was in denial.” 

A month later in March of 2021, Dawn and her husband Jason met with her pulmonologist to hear the results of a biopsy. It was cancer, specifically, non-small cell adenocarcinoma. 

Dawn said, “And I looked at him and I was still in denial. I said, well, what stage is this cancer? And this is when it hit me. He said, you have stage four lung cancer, and it's metastasized all over your body.”

We asked Jason about that moment.

“I can’t talk about that,” said Jason.

Dawn was told there were two treatment options. The best was chemo with immunotherapy known as Keytruda.  The combination could give her up to five years. However, Keytruda therapy required a specific protein to be present in Dawn’s body to work. Without that protein, chemo was the only course of action that, at best, would give her little more than a year to live.

“And the first thing that came to my mind is, how am I going to tell my four children this?” said Dawn. “How? And I can't die. I have 10 grand babies. I want them to know me and have the relationship with me that I had with my grandma. I saw Jesus in her.”

“But I still knew who God was. And I still knew from all of my years of serving Him, 
He's never failed me once.” 

Jason said, “I trust God in good, bad, or indifferent, you know? I mean, I’ve seen things, I’ve seen way too many things to question who's in charge and you know, to ask Him why. Cause I'm not smart enough to understand the answer.” 

While she started chemotherapy immediately, it would take three weeks to find out if Dawn had the protein necessary for immunotherapy.

She said, “That was the longest three weeks of my entire life, not knowing.”

One day, her church showed up at the family’s home to pray.

“They all laid hands on me and my pastor, Art, he anointed me with oil. And the elders came around me and everybody was in a circle around. After they were done praying, they broke out in song. and they sing praise music over me. And it was like that heaviness, like it lifted,” said Dawn. 

It turned out she did have the necessary protein, and doctors were able to add the immunotherapy treatment to the chemo. Even then there were no guarantees.
“But even then, the success rate with the Keytruda they give me five years to live. That was it, one and a half to five years.” 

At this point, oncologist, Dr. Mary Malecek, took over Dawn’s care. 

Dr. Malecek said, “I don't have a crystal ball. I’m not sure how we're going to do we'll know more, you know, with our first set of scans, we'll know more as we see how your body's tolerating this.” 

Dawn began the treatments that would come around every three weeks, the side effects were devastating. Dawn, her family and friends continued to pray for healing.

"I had very few days that I doubted Him,” said Dawn. “Through the sickest of times. And God just has a really good group of doctors around me, and prayer warriors around me, and my husband, and my husband, and my husband, I can’t say enough.” 

One night, she woke up out of a deep sleep.

She said, “It was the weirdest feeling. I felt this warmth not just in my body. It was, I could feel something running through my veins. And I can’t explain it, I’ve never heard of it before. God told me that night He said, I was healing you.”

Then, after several treatments Doctor Malecek scheduled a follow up scan - the cancer had shrunk 25%.

“You know, whenever we see the tumor start to shrink, that's always a great sign,” said Dr. Malecek.

Treatments and prayers continued, and a second scan showed the cancer was continuing to shrink. By the third scan in October 2021, it was clear Dawn was cancer free. 
Dr. Malecek said, “So it's always wonderful when we see it, when we see someone who responds really well and really early like she did. And the big thing is that she's maintained that.” 

“If it wasn't for the drug and God's intervention and wisdom and knowledge, I wouldn't be sitting here today. I owe everything to Him,” said Dawn. 

Although Dawn eventually stopped chemo, she continued immunotherapy for another nine months. Today, she’s still cancer free and enjoys each day with Jason and their now 12 grandchildren.

Jason said, “He always wins. It's always His way. No matter what, no matter what anybody else says, doctors can say what they're going to say, He's going to do what he's going to do. I trust His word on it. He didn’t say Jason your wife is going to make it, she’s not going to make it, He just said trust me and I did, and here we are.”

“What an amazing God we serve. What an amazing God we serve,” said Dawn. 

“That's why this story is important to let people know there is a God who still heals. He's still a miracle working God because the Bible says that He never changes.”