Have you ever felt that you were being tested? Do you feel like that today?
Have you ever experienced one of life's “one-two punches?” Are you feeling punched today?
Life does offer a lot of things. Sometimes what life offers is good times and great fun ‘cause LIFE does give us a lot of what it is we want. But there will be those times when, what life will serve you up is:
a great BIG BATTLE and the opportunity to discover who you really are.
“I would like to thank everyone for coming and for calling in to hear what I have to say today. I have some news regarding my health to share with you.”
These were the words spoken by Lance Armstrong about a battle that would change his life forever, about his battle that would contribute to the lives of millions.
It was just after the 1996 Olympics when America’s No. 1 cyclist, Lance Armstrong, was diagnosed with testicular cancer. When detected, his cancer was so advanced that it had already spread to his abdomen, lungs and brain. Upon returning back to his home in Texas, doctors gave him a less than optimistic chance of survival. In fact, they said that it was the worse case of cancer that they had ever seen.
With a testicle amputated, brain tumors removed, lungs bombarded with chemotherapy and with his mother at his side—against impossible odds—Lance Armstrong beat cancer. Funny though, that it would be his ordeal with cancer that would serve to transform him into a world record-breaking cyclist and a world class humanitarian.
“Cancer was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. It nearly killed me, but instead it made me a better athlete,” Armstrong says today.
Before the cancer, Armstrong had been an exciting but not quite consistent prospect on the European-dominated world-cycling circuit.
Although he won the world championships in 1993, he was also forced to drop out of three of his first four Tours de France races because of exhaustion or injury. He was strong, yet not quite ready.
