Linda Whalley has made her mind up- she’s going to live until she’s 120!
"Well, if Moses didn’t start until he was 80 and lived until 120, I think I’m going to do the same," she said.
"I may look in the mirror and see a 50-something woman staring back at me, but I’ve still got the same dreams, thoughts and aspirations as I did when I was 18 and I see myself going from strength to strength. Everything I go through and whatever comes along, the same as always, I just leave it with the Lord."
It was Linda’s strong faith that sustained her through her toughest challenge when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to have a mastectomy.
But five years on and completely cancer-free she considers herself to be a ‘walking miracle’ and a testimony to God’s healing power.
And in celebration of the five-year milestone, Linda has organised a buffet and entertainment evening at Clifton Christian Centre next weekend for friends, family and churchgoers.
"I wanted a chance to say thank you to Jesus and thank you to all the family and church folks that have prayed for me as well as all my friends and neighbours that sent me cards and flowers and supported me through it all," she said.
Linda has been a Christian since she was around six years old. She came from a line of Welsh Baptist ministers and her grandfather, who was a miner and staunch communist, was converted during the Welsh revival at the turn of the last century. That legacy was passed to her mother, who brought up her two daughters in a Christian home.
"I remember the day it happened that our Sunday school teacher was talking about the wise and foolish virgins and how the wise ones had accepted Jesus," she said.
"I decided that I didn’t want to be like the foolish ones- it seemed logical to me to give your heart to Jesus if you wanted to go to heaven. I decided to go home and do that, but the teacher said that I could do it there and then.
"It’s strange, but the first time I was asked to speak at a ladies’ fellowship, I felt led to talk about the wise and foolish virgins!"
Linda felt for a long time that she wasn’t as close to God as she would like to be. Once she met her husband, John, who didn’t want to attend church, she stopped going for a number of years.
"However, looking back, I think I must have had a sheltered upbringing and didn’t like going to pubs and clubs, I felt like a fish out of water," she said.
When she changed departments at work, a Christian lady called Joyce Casey was in charge of Linda’s training. Eventually, she invited Linda to the church at Fredora Avenue.
Many years later she received the gift of tongues at a church meeting in Preston.
"I always thought you had to be a really good Christian before you had a bolt from the blue, supernatural experience," she said.
"But I remember being prayed for at this meeting and feeling a tingling sensation, like pins and needles. That’s when I started speaking in tongues, just a bit at first, although I would often get a voice in my head telling me it was rubbish, I just kept on thanking God for it."
Linda remembers one day when she was singing in tongues at the kitchen sink and God gave her the interpretation.
"I said to God that I didn’t know what I was singing, but I hoped it was something nice to Him," she said.
"Suddenly, I was singing the same song in English and it was the most wonderful praise and worship to God."
Linda, who worked in the civil service, felt God’s blessing on her new role as a welfare officer. She was able to witness to a woman dying of cancer.
"I reminded her of hearing about Jesus as a child and I knew there and then that this was the reason God wanted me to become a welfare officer," she said.
She went on to supervise the departmental changeover from paper to computer systems and also took a high profile role travelling the country, working long hours and staying in the best hotels.
But while her career was flourishing, her health was deteriorating without her knowledge.
The day before her mother’s funeral, Linda was sent for a routine mammogram, having reached the age of 50. She was immediately sent for a second to Lancaster.
"They told me I had two cancerous lumps in my breast- both primary," she said.
"I was riddled with it. They said the only option was surgery and then I might have to have radiotherapy and chemotherapy as well. I asked it if had gone too far- I didn’t want to go through surgery if I was going to die anyway. I wasn’t actually worried about dying, because I knew where I was going. The specialist said we would have to "wait and see."
"I said to God ‘Well, Lord, it looks like we’ve got two choices. They can either open me up and find nothing, in which case I’ll be a walking miracle, or I can go through it all because you want me to. But you know, Lord, I’m a coward and can’t take pain, so I’ll go in your strength.’ This wonderful peace came over me and I was as calm as anything. It didn’t matter whether I lived or died because I knew I would be OK going in His strength."
In fact, Linda was so peaceful that she didn’t need any pre-medication before the operation.
"They said my pulse was normal and I had no sign of anxiety at all," she said.
"After the operation, as I was being moved into the recovery room, I suddenly felt this hot burning sensation on my chest. I was chatting away to a nurse putting things away and when I went back to my room, I felt fine- I didn’t need any painkillers."
Linda had been put on a drip and thought that this was responsible for the lack of pain.
"I said to one of the nurses that whatever was in the drip, it was working, but she said that it was only saline- she didn’t even know why I was on it, because I’d been taking fluid since I got back from theatre," said Linda.
"The surgeon was amazed as well, especially when a biopsy result showed that there was no cancer anywhere else. When I told him about my faith, he said to me that there were more things that go on between heaven and earth than we know."
"I just kept saying thank you to Jesus. I gave him two options and as ever, He found a third one."
Linda had to take tablets for the next five years. During that time, she had another trauma to face- the threat of bone cancer.
"I damaged my leg and when I was x-rayed, something showed up on my spine," she said.
"I said to God: ‘you’re not going to cure me of cancer one year and give it me back another, because you’re not a God who would do that, so I’m claiming your healing in the name of Jesus, and by Your stripes we are healed."
But her faith was tested to the limits. A friend turned up one night she hadn’t seen for 15 years. She came to explain that her husband was in hospital with a suspected heart attack and then started telling Linda about her husband’s sister who had died of bone cancer. Another friend, whose wife had died of cancer, found out about Linda’s situation.
"He wanted to know all the details, but when I told him, he kept saying that the same things had happened to his wife," said Linda.
"I just kept saying to God ‘I trust you and I believe that by your stripes we are healed."
One night, two days before her bone scan, Linda felt God’s power again.
"I was flat on my back asleep – any other position and I was in absolute agony - when I suddenly woke to a feeling this burning, red hot feeling all over," she said.
"Then I remembered I’d had this feeling before. I grabbed hold of the duvet, threw it to one side and leapt out of bed! My husband wondered what on earth I was doing.
"Two days later, when I had the bone scan, I was perfectly clear."
Now signed off from the doctors, free from tablets, she is continually thankful for what God has done.
She said: "God’s so fantastic. He made everything there is and I’m just like a pinprick on the earth’s surface and yet He hears me and answers me. I could go on for hours about all the things God has done for me!"
