Kate Bowler, an assistant professor of the History of Christianity in North America at Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C., recently told “The Billy Hallowell Podcast” about her health battle and how it has transformed her faith and perspective.
Bowler was an accomplished college professor, mother and wife when she was diagnosed with incurable, stage four colon cancer in 2015 — a earth-shattering reality that left the then 35-year-old totally stunned.
“There’s no cancer in my family so when I started having stomach pain, it wasn’t even on my radar,” Bowler explained. “I started going to doctors … I didn’t think it would be anything life- changing.”
Unfortunately, she was told she had an incurable diagnoses — one that would uproot her life and send her future into total uncertainty.
“It was unbelievable. It was like I was an actor in somebody else’s movie all of the sudden. I couldn’t wrap my head around it,” Bowler said. “Your brain stops when you get news like that. The only thought I could come up with was, ‘But I have a son … I have a family. I have people who need me … this can’t end.'”
Bowler, who continues to fight her illness, has chosen optimism in light of her plight, recently releasing a memoir titled, Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved.
Watch Professor Kate Bowler share her story below:
