Review of Chase Away Cancer by Ellie Poole Ewoldt

Wow! If you ever wanted to know what goes on in the day to day battle against cancer, this book will tell you! I knew people went back and forth to the hospital or clinic for chemo or radiation and that some had operations, but I didn’t realize how many secondary procedures (and problems!) they go through. It truly is a battle. And the fight never lets up.

Worse though, in this book, the person fighting was a two-year-old little boy named Chase. And most of the problems had to do with the treatments’ side effects not the actual cancer itself!

His mother is the author and I was amazed at the details she remembered, given everything thrown at them. I also marveled that she could so easily say that God had given them the cancer and that they were right where He had placed them. Most people argue that…at least at first. It bothered me though when Chase asked her to hold him so death wouldn’t take him that she told him she couldn’t stop death, but that if that happened, Jesus would be there and it would be alright. While this is true I’m sure I could never tell my two-year-old that they might die.

I loved that Chase played “his song” before each hospital procedure, so that dozens and dozens of hospital staff heard the words to “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)” by Matt Redman. He was a tiny evangelist!

There was also a great quote toward the end, when his mom was going to tell him the cancer might be back and what they would have to do then and he held up his hand and said, “OK, but Mom, stop. Don’t tell me anything else. Can I go back outside?”

And she wrote, “In the resiliency of childhood, they (kids) saw no reason to worry until the threat moved from conceptual to real. The backyard on a warm summer night was far more alluring than thinking about going back to the hospital.” And realized that she needed to put her hand out to God in faith. “Don’t tell me anything else right now. You know what comes next, so I don’t need to. I trust You.”

If we could all just live that way! I would recommend the book.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through Tyndale House Publishers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”