{"id":3822,"date":"2026-10-28T19:43:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T19:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/28\/kabarsula-missouri-woman-says-pope-leos-lung-cancer-diagnosis-strengthens-her-faith-if-the-pope-can-get-it-anybody-can-bandar-slot-indonesia\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T19:43:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T19:43:48","slug":"kabarsula-missouri-woman-says-pope-leos-lung-cancer-diagnosis-strengthens-her-faith-if-the-pope-can-get-it-anybody-can-bandar-slot-indonesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/28\/kabarsula-missouri-woman-says-pope-leos-lung-cancer-diagnosis-strengthens-her-faith-if-the-pope-can-get-it-anybody-can-bandar-slot-indonesia\/","title":{"rendered":"kabarsula Missouri woman says Pope Leo\u2019s lung cancer diagnosis strengthens her faith: ‘If the pope can get it, anybody can’ bandar SLOT INDONESIA"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Lisa Koester of Imperial, Mo., is seen in this undated photo with her husband and son. Recently diagnosed with two forms of lung cancer, Koester told OSV News that Pope Leo XIV\u2019s experience with the disease has given her a sense that she is not alone as she undergoes treatment. (OSV News photo\/Lisa Koester)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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A Missouri woman diagnosed with lung cancer told OSV News that Pope Leo\u2019s diagnosis with the same disease has helped strengthen her own Catholic faith amid her illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that I shared such a diagnosis with the pope<\/a> \u2014 I\u2019m kind of touched,\u201d said Lisa Koester. \u201cI felt like I wasn\u2019t alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 64-year-old Koester, a resident of Imperial, Missouri, said she\u2019d been getting regular lung screenings for \u201cat least eight to 10 years\u201d as a former smoker.<\/p>\n

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Recently, she said, \u201cthey found something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her physician, Dr. Nirmal Veeramachaneni of Saint Louis University and SSM Health, immediately ordered a positron emission tomography, or PET, scan, which uses a radioactive tracer to detect early signs of cancer, as well as heart and neurological disorders.<\/p>\n

Koester received the scan results in late August while spending time with her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son had just moved back from Utah and got engaged,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were sitting in their new home and I got the results of my test, and I just started crying. My husband was crying, my son was crying, because we knew it was something. Even though it was only the size of a grape, that\u2019s big enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koesler said that through their tears, she and her family resolved to face their cancer experience with courage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just started saying, \u2018These are the cards that have been dealt to us. This is God\u2019s plan for me, and this is what we have to work through,’\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

With a localized mass detected, she said, surgery was ordered \u201cbefore it spread into the chest wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pope Leo XIV shakes hands with Dr. Stefano Margaritora, who was his lead surgeon, as the pontiff leaves Rome\u2019s Gemelli Hospital Oct. 17, 2026, following his lung surgery and cancer diagnosis. (OSV News photo\/Simone Risoluti, Vatican Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First came a battery of pre-operative tests \u2014 and a month of waiting before entering the hospital.<\/p>\n

Koester said \u201ca lot of prayer\u201d sustained her during that in-between period.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband, my son, my family were great,\u201d she said. \u201cThey stood by me. We were all going through it. This is a family issue; all of our lives are impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having worked for a decade as a health care professional at an oncology practice, Koester knew that \u201cit\u2019s easy to say, \u2018Don\u2019t worry about it. Wait for the results.’\u201d<\/p>\n

But, she said, \u201cYou still think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the late September surgery \u2014 which saw doctors remove an upper lobe \u2014 Koester learned testing had shown she had not one, but two types of stage one cancer: squamous cell and small cell, the latter of which is less common and more aggressive.<\/p>\n

Koester said she was advised that having two concurrent types of lung cancer is \u201cvery rare,\u201d but added the small cell cancer, according to her oncological team, may be genetic.<\/p>\n

Now, with additional tests and consultations ahead, Koester is drawing even more deeply on her faith and urging others to get regular lung cancer screenings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the pope can get it, anybody can,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Koester said she is cherishing time with her family, while reflecting on the sudden and mysterious turns life can take.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know the end of the story, and we\u2019re in the middle of this journey,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Cancer has brought her \u201ceven closer to God,\u201d she said \u2014 and reminders of his presence are all around, even in the pattern of leaves in a tree near her home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look out my bay window every day, and I see this face like Jesus in the leaves,\u201d said Koester. \u201cI know he\u2019s here with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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kabarsula SLOT <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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