The Valley of the Shadow of Cancer

Ian W. Toal is a nurse in Barrie, Ontario.

When Eleanor Bouwman was diagnosed with cancer, she went looking for a
book that documented “the joys and fears, laughter and tears ... as
experienced by an ordinary Christian family.” Unable to find such a
book, she kept notes and compiled this book after a horrendous six-year
battle with cancer.

The details of her illness are depressingly familiar: misdiagnosis;
kidney cancer; surgery, followed by another type of cancer; metastases
of the kidney cancer; a medical system that tries hard but often has no
compassion; a search for alternative treatments. What sustained Bouwman
throughout her ordeal, and what constitutes the main focus of this book,
was her faith in Jesus Christ. Her inspiring book is a testimony to the
restorative effects of religious faith.