I last saw Paul Callaghan two years ago when I interviewed him about the Mother of Mercy, the ministry to the homeless he was inspired to start by Our Lady (see Goodnews Nov/Dec 2008). He was suffering from advanced terminal bone cancer and rake thin. Despite the danger to his health and protests from his doctors, he continued to go out on the streets with his team of volunteers to dispense sandwiches, drinks, prayers and hugs to those in need. It could only be a matter of time I thought however, before death took this brave and holy man and I could see that he was quietly preparing the volunteers for the time when he wouldn’t be there to lead them any more. Even so there was a great sense of peace among the little band and the sense of trust in God and Our Lady, which was striking.

This was no doubt because Paul had already experienced one miracle only a couple of years previously. Initially when he had first been diagnosed with the cancer he had been in such crippling pain, that he had been on a morphine drip and hardly able to move. He had been taken to the healing waters at Holywell in Wales after which he had emerged, still with the cancer but pain free. This had baffled the doctors but so impressed the homeless that God was real that a whole movement of prayer began in the Seel Street hostel, run by the Missionaries of Charity in Liverpool. This in turn prepared the way some months later, when Paul heard a word from Our Lady to go out on the streets and feed the people

Bones coated to stop them crumbling

As the months passed I kept expecting to hear that Paul had died. But instead, at the beginning of this year, came the amazing news that on the feast of the Immaculate Conception 2009, Paul Callaghan had been totally healed. When I ran into him at the Northern Catholic conference this June, he looked fit and well, so much so that people were ribbing him about his weight, as he had bulked up to 16 stone. He told me what had happened.

In May last year he suddenly became ill and went down with a roaring temperature, and began hallucinating. It was so bad the doctor told him to come to hospital immediately and they x rayed him on the spot. But as suddenly as the temperature had risen, it went back to normal and he was sent home. The x rays, however, showed that the cancer had now eaten its way totally through the spine and Paul was sent to Clatterbridge cancer hospital for some emergency radiotherapy treatment. His bones were coated with a special substance to stop them crumbling and he was told that his spine was so brittle that it could snap if he sneezed or coughed too hard.

Suddenly everything stopped

The radio therapy treatment made him feel sick, but he still insisted on joining the team when he could out on the streets. His treatment went on for some time and he was called in for more x rays to see if the treatment had been successful. The specialist, concerned that the cancer might have spread to other organs, also decided to give him a whole body scan. Paul was told to come back on 8th December for the results. He remembers, “I was sitting at home on the couch the Sunday before the Tuesday appointment when suddenly it seemed that everything stopped. I can’t explain it but I felt the power of the Holy Spirit all around me and the words “Acts 4:10” came into my mind. I am not a bible scholar so I didn’t even know what the scripture was. I looked it up and it said, “Here stands this man cured in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene.”

I knew then that God had healed me, so when I went to the hospital to see the consultant, I asked a friend to come with me as a witness and bring a tape recorder. I knew something had happened immediately by the look on the doctor’s face. I sat down and asked “what’s the damage then?” But in my heart I knew because of the bible reading. He said, “We cannot find any damage to your skeleton of this cancer anywhere in your body. It is totally normal. We have never ever seen this before. Not only have I never seen this before, but in all my years in the medical profession I have never even heard of anything like this before.”

The doctor was totally perplexed as this type of cancer is supposed to be incurable. Because of this the hospital can’t admit that Paul has been healed, and are insisting that the cancer is still there but they can’t detect it. When Paul returned for his six monthly check in June, things were still fine and his levels were still zero. Paul comments, “They have no explanation for it. In fact it is an embarrassment for them and they don’t want to talk about it.” The specialist cancer nurse, that has been looking after him, has been so amazed by it all, that he is doing a case study in a private capacity about what has happened because it is so unusual. Paul adds, “The good thing is because I have been ill for so long I have all the medical records at my house. The x- rays show that before my bones were just eaten away and full of holes and now they are completely healthy.”

He continues, “For me my healing is just God showing for his own reasons, his power to do the undoable, and that He can do anything, no matter what science or the medical profession says. The maximum life expectancy with Multiple Myloma, my condition, is less than 4 years. It is a progressive illness and gets worse and worse, but in my case it has completely reversed. It is not just been healed. It has totally gone and there is no sign that I ever had the disease.” He regrets nothing of his journey and illness. “Looking back I can see how God has used my suffering over the last three years. The whole journey has chiseled me into the person I am now. I believe I have been healed through God’s grace and Our Lady’s prayers and through my service and my constant “yes” to them. In this world there is so much bad news in the press, that what’s happened to me gives everyone hope”

The homeless themselves, says Paul, weren’t that amazed when they heard the news. He chuckles, “They had had a word with God themselves and said “Paul is our mate and he does a lot of good work for you so you’d better help him or we won’t be happy.” They had more faith than me!”