The Power of Prayer: Reverend Robert E. Duncan (right) pictured with his wife, Dorothy, share their story of winning the battle against cancer as they relax in the library of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Chesterton.

(Tribune photo by Alexandra Newsman)

By ALEXANDRA NEWMAN

Reverend Robert E. Duncan, who for many years has ministered his flock, now ministers with a renewed faith - a true understanding of the power of prayer.

Duncan, who has led the local congregation at St. Paul Lutheran Church for 18 years, says only now that he has experienced his own near brush with mortality, does he understand what he has preached to others.

“God used me to show how he deals with his people,” Duncan said in a recent interview.

Duncan was diagnosed in 1998 with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

“I had noticed I was losing weight and had a lump in my throat,” Duncan said. “I was told I had the slow growing kind of cancer.”

However, in June 1999, when he thought he was almost in remission, another test showed it was back again. He continued treatment for the disease and reached a turning point in April 1999 when he agreed to take part in a pilot program for a stem cell, bone marrow transplant at Rush Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago.

His brother Harold, who lives in California, agreed to be the donor. He had the perfect match.

In the five hour procedure, blood was extracted from Harold’s arm. Three million stem cells were extracted from his blood and saved for the Reverend. Then the blood, minus the extracted stem cells, was returned to Harold in his other arm. Because he was healthy, his own body would replenish the cells.

The cancer cells and white cells in the Reverend’s blood had been killed with chemotherapy prior to the transfusion. Harold’s blood with the three million stem cells then transfused into the Reverend.

“His immune system is taking over,” Rev. Duncan said.

“It takes five years to be considered cured,” he added.

He and his brother were featured in a health segment about the procedure on WGN-TV news. Friends video-taped the segment in which they told of the miraculous process.

In the past ten years, the patient had to stay in the hospital for months following the transfusion. Duncan participated in a new, out-patient program.

As a part of the pilot out-patient program, Duncan and his wife Dorothy had to live at a hospital apartment from June through February. During that time, the daily routine was to conduct life as normally as possible, but in a kind of isolation. They read and watched TV. Dorothy cooked dinners for the two of them.

“We were kind of shut off from society,” Dorothy said of the isolation-type existence. They kept in touch with family via telephone.

“The Lord provided the solution for my absence (from his parish),” Duncan said, adding that usually a Vicar must be requested months in advance and in this case it only took a few weeks.

“The Church has been very good to us,” said Dorothy.

“Great numbers of people have been praying for me, that’s why my body has reacted favorably,” he said. “And, if I had not gone to Rush (Presbyterian Hospital), I would be dead”.

As of May 1, comprehensive tests showed he had no evidence of lymphoma.

Today, he takes anti-rejection medication and steroids. He must keep out of the sun, but he does get to mow the lawn.

“I have 95 percent of my strength back and am back at work,” he said.

Duncan has a full daily schedule with only one day a week off. He plans to add a support group for cancer patients.

“I want to share the spiritual side, which is a valuable key,” he said.

Duncan said, as a minister, he has counseled people about life and death, but now he truly understands the reality of a termination point.

“I’ve been married 42 years and can’t imagine how quickly the time has passed,” he said. “Reality is - there is an end to life on earth. Yes, the Lord decides when it is time to go, ‘Thy will be done,’” he said.

“We need to accept His teaching and He will carry us through,” he said. “I saw how He carried me through.”

“People also must understand that bad things don’t happen to them because God doesn’t love them,” he said.

“Instead of asking the question ‘why me?’ the correct question should be ‘why not me?’” he said.

“Through misfortune we learn the truths that we don’t otherwise see,” he said, and added that “we need one another.”

Posted 10/3/2001