Welcome to this week's bonus interview on the Prayers of Rest podcast. I'm Kendra Stanton, your co-host,

and this week, Asherita is joined by her guest Nikki Hardy to talk about trusting God through cancer.

Nikki Hardy is an author, speaker, coach, and cancer thriver, whose goal is to help you discover

how life doesn't have to be pain-free to be full. She is the author of Breathe Again,

How to Live Well When Life Falls Apart, One Minute Prayers for Women with Cancer, and host of

the chemo chair prayers podcast, and the trusting God through cancer summit.

Keep listening to hear Nikki's story of how the chemo chair provided her with an opportunity to trust God

and how a piece of candy actually allowed her to encourage someone with a cancer diagnosis.

Let's jump right in.

My mom lived in Vancouver, Canada, and I was in London,

England, and she was diagnosed with lung cancer, aggressive, small cell lung cancer. And so I had this difficult relationship of being separated geographically from her.

But when I went to visit her, obviously I was there for two weeks at a time, living with her,

being with her, going to appointments.

And then I was gone.

And then the same thing happened six years later when my sister joe was diagnosed with the same thing

mom had survived just 14 months and then joe was diagnosed at just 42 and by that time i had moved

to charlotte north carolina where we planted the church that we led.

And so, again, I had this disjointed, geographically separated relationship, trying to love and care for and pray for my sister.

And, and again, she survived 14 months. Hers was aggressive lung cancer

as well. But six weeks after that, I was diagnosed. And mine wasn't lung cancer like bears.

Mine, as you know, was rectal cancer. And it felt like the heat-seeking missile of death

had locked in on me, or more specifically,

...