I'm Maria Da Costa

I greet you all in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit-Amen. My Name is Maria Da Costa, 61 years old. I’m a cancer survivor …27+ Years, Praise God!
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in April ’93. It was a situation beyond my control and very frightening, as I was the family breadwinner at the time, but God kept all situations under control.
I was off work for three months and God made a plan – my boss paid my salary in full. My son was 15 years old at the time and God took care of him too. There followed 12 operations, plus a right hip replacement.
I had a scooter in order to get around. In June 2011, I organised a bikers’ rally for CANSA and many bikers joined me. I raised funds for cancer patients and survivors.
Since June 2008, the cancer metastasized into my bones. I’m stage 4 cancer now and I had six months of Chemo. Cancer spread to four discs on my lumbar spine. After a period of being in recession, I relapsed and had radiation to my spine. In July 2013 two discs collapsed and I was admitted into hospital for five weeks.
The neuro-surgeons could not make a decision about operating on my spine because my heart function was only 30%. I asked God to cancel the operation and He did! I then suffered a mild stroke and God pulled me through it all.
Both my knees are collapsed – I wear braces to hold my spine up and walk with crutches. I was given morphine to control my pain but I don’t drink it – I control my pain with other pain killers!
I then had a CT scan done. My whole chest has many lymph nodules including my lungs – one nodule is in my aorta.