Kathleen's Miraculous Journey

Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
13 Jan 2010

Pope Benedict XV1 prays at the tomb of Mary MacKillop
while in Sydney in 2008 for World Youth Day

For 16 years, Lake Macquarie's Kathleen Evans remained silent, not wanting to talk publicly about the miracle that saved her life.

But with Mary MacKillop set to become Australia's first saint, and with the inexplicabler cure of Kathleen's aggressive lung cancer and secondary tumours to the brain recently approved by the Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI as a bona fide miracle, Kathleen decided to tell her story.

Returning from Lightning Ridge where she and her husband Barry have lived for the past two years she said she felt privileged and humbled to be involved in "something as big as this," and  hoped she would be a good ambassador for Mary MacKillop.

Diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1993 and given , at most, just two months to live, the then 49-year-old Kathleen was told her cancer was inoperable and so virulent, chemotherapy would have no effect. Radiation treatment was offered but it would have meant 10 days in hospital and would have only given her an extra week or two of life at the most.

"It was a case of thanks but no thanks," she said at a Sydney press conference this week.

Accompanied by Barry, her husband of 31 years, the couple's daughter Annette and their son, Luke the youngest of their five children, the 66-year-old mother, grandmother of 20 and great grandmother to two, finally broke her silence and recalled her battle with cancer and how, when everything seemed hopeless, prayer was the only option. 

In less than four weeks after her diagnosis, Kathleen had become so weak, she could barely walk and could not dress, bath or shower herself. She also had difficulty breathing and suffered from cold sweats and with shakes so bad her husband, had to lie on top of her to try and stop the incessant trembling.

By now she was so ill, she had to be carried into the St Pius X Catholic Church, her local church in Newcastle.

"We all knew she was dying," says Marie Starkey, a parishioner from that time, who said it was common knowledge among the community that Kathleen had already picked out her coffin and brought her daughter, Annette's wedding forward so she could attend.

 "I am a great believer in prayer, and prayer was all that was left," Kathleen told the press conference and recalled how a friend had given her a relic, a fragment of cloth taken from Mary MacKillop's habit, together with prayer cards from the Sisters of Joseph of the Sacred Heart, the Order Mary founded.

The precious relic, with a small photograph of Mary MacKillop was pinned to Kathleen's nightie and the prayer card distributed among her family and friends. For the following nine days and nights, Kathleen and those who loved her offered fervent prayers to Mary MacKillop asking for her intercession with God so He could create a miracle and save the mother of five's life.

Kathleen Evans at the tomb of
Mary MacKillop at North Sydney

A novena certainly never to be forgotten.

With no medical treatment and her body riddled with cancer it was a desperate hope. But Kathleen and her family's faith never wavered and within a few weeks not only did the awful shaking and trembling cease but the night sweats disappeared and Kathleen's energy slowly began to return.

A short time later, Kathleen was able to climb out of bed and take a shower on her own. Against all odds, she grew stronger with each day and within six months it became apparent she was in some sort of remission.

But it was the series of scans and X-rays she underwent 10 months after diagnosis that stunned everyone, and so confounded her radiologist that he asked to repeat the procedure.

"You shouldn't be here," her doctors told her in amazement as they re-examined her earlier scans and X-rays.

But however hard they searched, they could find no signs of the cancer than had nearly killed her. Other than scar tissue in her lungs and brain, there was no evidence she had ever had cancer let alone been at death's door. Rather than remission, she had been completely cured and 16 years later, Kathleen is living a full energetic life with no fears that the cancer will ever return.

"I am far more likely to die of a heart attack," she laughingly told Sydney's media this week.

According to oncologists and cancer experts, the odds of anyone surviving advanced lung cancer are remote with the average survival of someone with lung cancer and with one or more metastases in the brain given little more than two months.

Professor Matthew Peters from Concord Hospital told Sydney's Daily Telegraph he had overseen the treatment of thousands of cancer patients, but he had never seen a person cured without medical intervention and admitted that "outside of a miracle, what happened to Kathleen Evans is very hard to understand or explain."

Although Professor Peters said he was aware of other cases where patients who had been diagnosed with lung cancer and later cured, he said this usually was a result of misdiagnosis and rather than contracting cancer, the patient was found to be suffering from pneumonia.

"But with cancer spreading to other parts of the body such as the glands or brain, there is no question of misdiagnosis," he said.

From the start, Kathleen and her family were convinced the disappearance of her cancer was due to Mary MacKillop's intervention with God and that a miracle had occurred. But it wasn't until 2004 more than a decade after the first miracle attributed to Mary had been approved by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints, that the Lake Macquarie grandmother approached the Sisters of St Joseph to tell her story.

Having read about a case that had been put forward to the Vatican as a second miracle, Kathleen heard it had not met the rigid criteria of the Church and had been turned down. Understanding that a second miracle was needed before the way could be cleared for the canonisation of Mary MacKillop, Kathleen not only shared her story with the Sisters in Sydney, but provided them with complete medical documentation, the names of her oncologists as well as scans, X rays and notes from her GP.

These, together with statements from family members, friends and her local Parish , were given to the Sisters so an examination of her case by the Church and its experts could begin.

"It takes a lot for a miracle to be proven but Kathleen and Barry had all the necessary documents," said a delighted, Sister Anne Derwin, the Congregational Leader of the Sisters of St Joseph.

For the next few years, Kathleen and Barry and their family endured rigorous scrutiny as the second miracle attributed to Mary MacKillop was investigated by doctors, medical and theological experts in Australia and then by the teams of scientists, theologians, medical specialists and non-believers in Rome on behalf of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Their quiet life on a housing estate at Windale near Lake Macquarie on the NSW mid north coast was turned upside down and in 2008 when rumours about Kathleen's miracle began to surface and gain credence in her home parish in Newcastle, she and Barry took off for Lightning Ridge.

Alarmed stories of a miracle were premature and worried about an invasion from Australia's media and the consequent loss of privacy, Barry and Kathleen made the opal mining town their home for the next two years. But this week, all that changed when Kathleen and members of her family attended the Sydney press conference and spoke for the first time about the miracle that cured Kathleen and saved her life.

Today, Kathleen's faith remains as steadfast as ever and she still wears the relic from Mary MacKillop's habit and prays to Mary whom she says is very much a presence in her life.

As to why she was chosen by God to be cured as a result of Mary's intercession, she admits she has no idea and says she will ask that question herself when she reaches the Pearly Gates.

Describing herself as "just an ordinary person" she says while she and Barry have always had a strong faith, she insists "I wasn't on my knees all the time" or "that I thought I'll go to hell if I missed Mass."

Before retreating from the public eye once again, Kathleen said her dream these days was to travel to Rome later this year for the canonisation of Australia's first saint by Pope Benedict XVI. Dates for the canonisation of Mary MacKillop are yet to be announced by the Vatican but for Kathleen, after two years in Lightning Ridge, she intends to spend the next few months with her family and enjoying her grandchildren and great grandchildren.