As someone who navigated health struggles throughout his life, including cancer and three brain tumors, former figure skater Scott Hamilton knows about the uncertainty of a bad diagnosis and how to overcome those fears.
“If you’re facing a difficult diagnosis, I just want to encourage you…” Hamilton said. “You let the fear do its work…I’ve always heard this quote that I don’t know where it came from — that courage is fear that said its prayers, right?”
“Without fear, courage does not exist. But I want you to step into it with fascination. Try to understand what’s going on in your body and how you can participate in getting your health back.” he went on to say.
For the Ohio native, laughter is the best medicine and told viewers who are dealing with a medical crisis to “inject joy in the atmosphere.”
“When I was going through chemo, no one was allowed in my room unless they made me laugh,” the gold medallist recalled. “Everybody got it, and I remember not the feeling sick or not the chemo itself, but I remember the skinhead wigs, the whoopee cushions, the comedic movies.”
“Set the ground rules, but participate fully, because when you step into this thing and allow it to do its work, it’s extraordinary,” the father of four added. “Especially when you survive, just how important that period of time was.”
Hamilton ultimately credits his testicular cancer diagnosis in 1997 for reigniting his faith.
“I survived something that took the most important person in my life off the planet…I survived. What’s my purpose now? What do I need to do?” referring to his mom who died of breast cancer in 1977.
He eventually met his wife Tracie, and they started to go to church together.
“She took me to a minister, a man named Ken Durham. And the first thing he said to me, which was extraordinary was, he goes, ‘You have to understand that Christianity is a faith of history. These things actually happened.’ And I go, ‘OK, that’s a good starting-off point.'” he recalled.
So when Hamilton was faced with a brain tumor, he and his wife had another weapon in their arsenal — prayer.
“And it was in that moment I knew where I was going to put everything…my trust, my faith, everything.” The 67-year-old said.
When Hamilton’s initial brain tumor was discovered he learned that it was congenital and was the mysterious illness that kept him in and out of hospitals during his childhood, and the illness that stunted his growth at 5’4’’.
The tumor came back in 2010 and 2016, with Hamilton opting out of surgery with the last discovery and decided to undergo targeted radiation therapy instead.
“I’m mostly trying to be in the moment and taking all the information and do the right thing when the time comes,” he said.
Whatever the future holds for Hamilton, he is taking it in stride and not taking life for granted.
“‘God doesn’t owe me a day. I’m good. Whatever’s next is next,’” he recalled telling his wife after the tumor returned in 2010. “The blessings keep coming because we allow them and we ask for them. I’ve been blessed beyond my wildest imagination; I would never even think to dream the stuff that I’ve been able to do.”
These are encouraging words that one can hold onto whether it is a life-changing medical diagnosis or any other inevitable trials that come our way.
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