When Tom Wilkinson* was diagnosed in 2008 with stage 4 head and neck cancer, he never imagined that God soon would use him to encourage his oldest daughter on her own cancer journey.
“He’s my hero,” says Joanna Dennstaedt, second in a family of six born to Tom and Dee Wilkinson. “He was the voice of reason and wisdom for me through it all.”
Joanna–“Jo” to her friends–was devastated in 2014 to get the diagnosis of stage 3 melanoma at the age of 34. Her four children were only 7, 5, 3, and 15 months. Two surgeries, including a complete groin lymph node dissection knocked her off her feet before she even started chemo.
The scheduled treatment was a year-long, weekly immunotherapy drug called Interferon, which had such tough side effects patients were normally hospitalized for the infusions and few could tolerate it for 12 months.
“I made it almost 10 months before it was killing me,” Jo recalls. “My liver was shot, my thyroid was shot and I started panicking.
“I was probably rock bottom and I kept thinking ‘I’m not going to get to raise my kids”,” she adds.
Me speaking at the 2024 Radiant Hope banquet
About that time she met a woman named Ivelisse Page who through her nonprofit Believe Big https://www.believebig.org/ helped Jo find a naturopathic doctor and get complementary treatments to help heal her body. She also gave her a copy of my book 50 Days of Hope.
And then one day a beautiful “sunshine” package showed up from an anonymous person in another state, who had been reading Jo’s blog. The enclosed note explained that the sender and her co-workers “put this box together and prayed for you.”
That’s when Jo knew.
“Why am I not doing this for others?” she asked herself. “I knew I needed to get outside of Jo.”
And the vision for Radiant Hope was birthed–months after Jo’s dad encouraged her not to “waste” her cancer and instead believe God could use “all the good and the hard.”
God confirmed Jo’s idea while at the cancer center one day He spoke to her heart: “You’re not here for you; you’re here for Me.”
“I just felt really called into loving people with cancer,” Jo explains.
And that she has.
In the nine years since the nonprofit https://www.radianthope.com/ was established in Mechanicsburg, PA, it has: 
- Served more than 7,000 people in 387 Pennsylvania counties
- Given away 5,000+ “HOPE” boxes, which include a copy of 50 Days of Hope
- Handed out 2,000+ water bottles at cancer treatment centers
- Provided respite care, scholarships, holiday gifts, one-on-one mentoring, celebrations, family photos and a cancer support group
“I never really wanted to start a nonprofit,” Jo admits. “I didn’t take a single business class in college, so I was wondering what was God calling me into?”
But now she realizes that “cancer has prepared me well to serve others.”
“Radiant Hope started out of my healing journey,” Jo explains. “All I did was say ‘yes’ and God did all the rest.”
“Cancer itself is not a gift, but there are so many little gifts that come out of it along the way,” Jo says. “I thought when my Dad had cancer that it was going to be the worst thing ever, but instead we could walk through my cancer journey together.
“Now I walk with others and encourage them just like he did for me.”
*(If you missed Tom’s story, read my last blog on 10-29.)
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Open in your browser to hear “Wings” (based on Psalm 91) by Lauren Daigle.
I’m a newspaper reporter-turned-author. And I’m a passionate encourager, but always a truth-teller. I worked for nearly two decades in a unique position as a patient advocate in my oncologist’s office and the Cancer Prayer Support Group I founded in 1991 is the country’s oldest such faith-based group.
2 comments
Lynn, i want to thank you for your book 50 Days of Hope. I am a cancer survivor of 2 years. I was drawn to your book, not for me, but for friends recently diagnosed. I did not want to misstep in my words of support. Anyway, at the end of “Unexplainable Peace”, you wanted readers to let you know if we were at peace when we received the diagnosis. I was. Absolute peace. All tests were conducted quickly. My 1st biopsy was scheduled as soon as my negative Covid results were received. That doctor called me personally to tell me just as a friend was walking into my home for our weekly devotions. She commented that she wouldn’t have expected me to be smiling as I heard the news. My major surgery for stage III serous endometrial cancer and accidentally discovered cancer of my appendix was scheduled quickly.
NOW, the news that I had to have chemo and radiation made me furious. “If i ever get cancer, cut it out, but no way chemo or radiation.” I was told no survival without. Treatments were completed and at a follow-up exam i pressed and was told 20% survival three years after treatment. Threw me a few days, but win-win: here with family or in heaven.
Thank you again, for your book that I am buying for others. Linda in God’s hands.
Author
Dear Linda,
Thanks for writing and sharing a little of your story. How wonderful that you had God’s supernatural peace right away–and I agree with you that the recommendation of chemo and radiation was the scariest part for me! I always thought that “getting it out” was the first and best thing to do for cancer, but after working with my oncologist for 20 years, I saw that for many cancers it is NOT the best way to either get a cure or a remission. So I’m glad to hear that you decided to get the recommended treatment.
And thank you so much for sharing “Peace” with people you know–I really appreciate that and pray often for all the folks whom I probably will never meet this side of Heaven, but will read my words. What a privilege it is for me that the Lord would choose to use my meager efforts to encourage others.
I pray many healing blessings on you and much continued peace to fill your heart and your home–Lynn