A CANCER patient who says she was healed by Guernsey’s ‘miracle child’ Linda Martel has been in the island for the first time since being cured.
Ruth Woods, from Northampton, said that, even today, the grave of the five-year-old, who is said to have healed hundreds of islanders in the 1960s, gave her peace.
The 76-year-old, who was visiting Guernsey with her husband Richard, 64, was diagnosed with bone cancer in 1971.
A carcinoma had been found in her right leg which, doctors warned, might have to be amputated. She recalled being scared, until a friend gave her a small square of white cloth that had once belonged to the child whose healing powers attracted national headlines.
‘That gave me hope, as I always had a faith and believed in Jesus and his divine healing powers,’ she said. ‘I held the cloth, and I felt so safe. I wasn’t afraid. I knew I would be fine.’
Doctors found that the cancer had not spread, and were able to save Mrs Woods’s leg, although a large section of it had to be removed, leaving her scarred.
After the operation she said she had a ‘visitation’.
‘I saw a figure all dressed in white. I knew then I would get better.’
Doctors had warned she would have trouble walking and would need a disabled badge. But Mrs Woods believes the cloth helped stop the spread of the cancer and aided her recovery. She never needed the disabled badge and is today fit and able.
Then a few years after her operation, in 1974, she discovered a lump in her left leg and she said she knew at once that the cancer had returned.
‘I was panicking,’ she said. ‘I knew I had to do something.’
She travelled to Guernsey, first visiting Linda’s childhood home and then her grave at St Sampson’s cemetery.
Mrs Woods remembers the grave being simple, just a stone, near the edge since a landslide carried much of the churchyard into Longue Hougue Quarry in 1969.
‘The grave was quite dilapidated and there was just an ordinary headstone,’ she said. ‘I just took a small pebble.’
On the way home in the car, she put the pebble under her leg where the lump was.
Turn to P‘I dozed off,’ she said. ‘Then my leg began to shake uncontrollably. Soon after, I felt relief.’
The lump disappeared. And, while it had not been diagnosed as cancerous, Mrs Woods said it had felt the same as the previous time. She was certain it had been cancer.
‘Doctors couldn’t understand how it had gone,’ she said.
‘I hadn’t had any treatment for my left leg.’
To this day she has never had a relapse. She has never published her story before and shared it with only a few friends and family. Some of them, she said, did not believe in the miracle and said that, as a Christian, she should not believe it either.
But Mrs Woods feels differently.
‘I firmly believe that God gave this little girl special powers of healing whilst she was alive and after her death,’ she said.
‘My faith has just become stronger since the healing.’
Mrs Woods met her husband in the 1980s. He said when she shared her story with him he was astonished.
‘I was really amazed by it,’ he said.
The couple’s visit to Guernsey was a last-minute decision but one they are pleased they made. Thirty-five years on from the last time she was here she said it had been ‘wonderful’ to visit the grave.
‘It was very peaceful. We will put some flowers on it before we go.’
Ruth Woods, from Northampton, said that, even today, the grave of the five-year-old, who is said to have healed hundreds of islanders in the 1960s, gave her peace.
The 76-year-old, who was visiting Guernsey with her husband Richard, 64, was diagnosed with bone cancer in 1971.
A carcinoma had been found in her right leg which, doctors warned, might have to be amputated. She recalled being scared, until a friend gave her a small square of white cloth that had once belonged to the child whose healing powers attracted national headlines.
‘That gave me hope, as I always had a faith and believed in Jesus and his divine healing powers,’ she said. ‘I held the cloth, and I felt so safe. I wasn’t afraid. I knew I would be fine.’
Doctors found that the cancer had not spread, and were able to save Mrs Woods’s leg, although a large section of it had to be removed, leaving her scarred.
After the operation she said she had a ‘visitation’.
‘I saw a figure all dressed in white. I knew then I would get better.’
Doctors had warned she would have trouble walking and would need a disabled badge. But Mrs Woods believes the cloth helped stop the spread of the cancer and aided her recovery. She never needed the disabled badge and is today fit and able.
Then a few years after her operation, in 1974, she discovered a lump in her left leg and she said she knew at once that the cancer had returned.
‘I was panicking,’ she said. ‘I knew I had to do something.’
She travelled to Guernsey, first visiting Linda’s childhood home and then her grave at St Sampson’s cemetery.
Mrs Woods remembers the grave being simple, just a stone, near the edge since a landslide carried much of the churchyard into Longue Hougue Quarry in 1969.
‘The grave was quite dilapidated and there was just an ordinary headstone,’ she said. ‘I just took a small pebble.’
On the way home in the car, she put the pebble under her leg where the lump was.
Turn to P‘I dozed off,’ she said. ‘Then my leg began to shake uncontrollably. Soon after, I felt relief.’
The lump disappeared. And, while it had not been diagnosed as cancerous, Mrs Woods said it had felt the same as the previous time. She was certain it had been cancer.
‘Doctors couldn’t understand how it had gone,’ she said.
‘I hadn’t had any treatment for my left leg.’
To this day she has never had a relapse. She has never published her story before and shared it with only a few friends and family. Some of them, she said, did not believe in the miracle and said that, as a Christian, she should not believe it either.
But Mrs Woods feels differently.
‘I firmly believe that God gave this little girl special powers of healing whilst she was alive and after her death,’ she said.
‘My faith has just become stronger since the healing.’
Mrs Woods met her husband in the 1980s. He said when she shared her story with him he was astonished.
‘I was really amazed by it,’ he said.
The couple’s visit to Guernsey was a last-minute decision but one they are pleased they made. Thirty-five years on from the last time she was here she said it had been ‘wonderful’ to visit the grave.
‘It was very peaceful. We will put some flowers on it before we go.’
Read more: http://www.thisisguernsey.com/2010/09/09/linda-cured-my-cancer-from-beyond-the-grave/#ixzz1DdaNReaa
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