Tammy Peterson is the only person in the world known to have survived a rare form of kidney cancer. And, at age 58, she will soon become a member of the Catholic Church.
The advocate, mother, podcaster, and wife of psychologist Jordan Peterson says it was her faith that helped her survive the most excruciating cancer treatments.
TAMMY PETERSON
They would be doing some procedure or something other, looking for what was wrong with me, and I would just pray the Lord’s prayer the whole time, silently. I would just pray the Lord’s prayer and no matter what they were doing, it didn’t matter. I could endure whatever it was they were up to as long as I stayed steady with Christ.
It seems that pain, suffering and sin, in some way, that darkness brings us to God.
Tammy was born into a Protestant family and ultimately grew up without formal religious ties. But she remembers her Polish Catholic great-grandmother's devotion to the rosary.
This memory returned while she was in the hospital and a friend gifted her a rosary blessed by Pope Francis. The same friend taught her how to use the rosary and came to the hospital to pray with her everyday for five weeks. This kickstarted Tammy's own daily practice of praying the rosary. And it changed her life.
TAMMY PETERSON
I pray the rosary because I need the rosary. I need better understanding. I need to get on my knees. I need to find what is the next right thing to do in my life, just as everyone has to.
If you pray everyday, then there will be a day that those prayers make the difference that you need or that someone close to you needs. So it isn’t the prayer exactly, it is the practice of the prayer overtime, it is the relationship that you build.
Since being cancer-free and amid her conversion to the Catholic faith, Tammy has committed to sharing her testimony wherever and whenever she can.
TAMMY PETERSON
I told God I would do things. I said, if you let me live, I will share what I know publicly. I promise I will speak publicly. I won’t hide my light under a bushel any longer. I will just be brave, I’ll be brave and I’ll say what I need to say. So when I get asked, I say yes—it doesn’t matter really who it is. Because I think, well, if I can help one person, it’s worth it.
Tammy Peterson will be welcomed into the Catholic Church in Toronto this Easter.
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