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One in a Million
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Click the photo of Ken to link to the January 29, 2008 CBC News article "Ottawa man wrongly diagnosed with deadly Creutzfeld-Jakob"
Click below to link to PrizeFighter 19, written after Ken's original diagnosis.
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Recommended Viewing
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The Bucket List
"You only live once, so why not go out in style? That's what two cancer-ward roommates, an irascible billionaire and a scholarly mechanic decide when they get the bad news. They compose a bucket list - things to do before you kick the bucket - and head off for the around-the-world adventure of their lives."
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A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body; jealousy is like cancer in the bones. - Proverbs 14:30
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We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. - Romans 5:3-4
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More than three years have passed since I sent out PrizeFighter 19. It told the story of then 40-year-old Ken Godmere, who had been diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a rare and fatal degenerative brain disease. Ken was remarkable, not because of his association with a one-in-a-million disease, but because of the way he chose to deal with it.
Even with the prospect of being confined to a nursing home and dying within a year, Ken chose to look on life as a package deal. While acknowledging his impending physical and mental decline, he chose to focus on the blessings he had received in his lifetime and the wonderful gift of today.
Although most diseases can be confirmed while a patient is still alive, only an autopsy can verify the presence of CJD in someone's brain. In Ken's words, "There is no absolute test. But all the mental problems I was going through and the results of all the tests indicated that my brain cells were dying and this was what I had."
Yet four years after diagnosis, Ken had managed to avoid both the nursing home and the grave. Though he hadn't shaken the symptoms that led to his initial diagnosis, he had not deteriorated as expected. Doctors ordered further tests and determined that he did not have CJD.
"Finally, the doctor said that it was not CJD because I'm not getting any worse and I'm not dead."
- Ken Godmere
Through all the challenges that he and his family have weathered over the last few years, Ken continues to inspire with his gracious attitude. He shares, "The experience that we went through in the original diagnosis and now the reversal have really tuned us in even more to life and all of its ups and downs."
A CBC news article used the term "misdiagnosis". I prefer how Ken refers to it instead as a "reversal" of the diagnosis. Part of me wants to believe that Ken really did have CJD four years ago, and that this reversal is truly a miracle in progress.
Miracle or no, we're glad to still have you around, Ken.
Keep running for your prize,
Larry Hehn
PrizeFighter subscribers live in Albania, Argentina, Australia,
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Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Nigeria,
Portugal, Serbia & Montenegro, Slovenia, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand,
United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States!
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