Home Christian News Joni Eareckson Tada Cancer Update: ‘All Clear!’

Joni Eareckson Tada Cancer Update: ‘All Clear!’

Joni Eareckson Tada cancer

Joni Eareckson Tada has exciting news: She is officially cancer-free. The author and ministry leader has had a couple of bouts with cancer, the most recent one recurring in November 2018. After several months of treatment, Eareckson Tada shares the “miraculous” news that the cancer has not returned. 

“For now, we have been spared of more cancer battles. We humbly realize that may well change in the future; but for today, for now, we are rejoicing in those wonderful words from my medical oncologist: ‘all clear!” Eareckson Tada wrote in an update on her health. 

Joni Eareckson Tada Cancer Update Is Cautiously Optimistic

If Eareckson Tada’s words sound cautiously optimistic, it is most likely due to the fact that she has battled cancer once before, in 2010. At that time, Eareckson underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy. The treatment lasted five years before she was considered cancer-free. 

In November 2018, the 69-year-old Eareckson Tada announced a tumor had grown over the mastectomy site and that she would need to undergo treatment once again. Radiation treatments left Eareckson Tada in a weakened state. She shared on her blog in February that the skin on her chest was wounded and causing her pain. Her doctor said she would need to hold off on radiation treatments until her skin had a chance to recuperate. “That area has been damaged so many times over the years from pressure sores and surgeries, little wonder it’s hard to mend,” Eareckson Tada wrote.

In March, Joni Eareckson Tada was hospitalized due to complications caused by her cancer treatment. She spent 14 days in the hospital before being released. 

On the Joni and Friends site, Eareckson Tada had these words to share about her most recent health update:

We were prepared to gladly take whatever from the hand of God, even if it were from his left hand. But the Lord was gracious and heard the desire of our hearts–last Friday’s PET scan shows that my second tumor that was removed last November… did not metastasize! Given the aggressive nature of that reoccurring cancer, this news is quite miraculous.

So, THANK you for lifting us up before the Lord Jesus. For now, we have been spared of more cancer battles. We humbly realize that may well change in the future; but for today, for now, we are rejoicing in those wonderful words from my medical oncologist: “all clear!” Onward and upward…

Joni Eareckson Tada is a quadriplegic, having experienced a diving accident as a teenager that left her paralyzed. She’s spent the last 51 years of her life in a wheelchair. Despite the chronic pain she suffers and trials such as cancer, Eareckson Tada consistently has a positive outlook on life.