WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — In today’s Pursuit Unlimited story, we look at how faith can play a significant role in recovering from illness.

A Polk County mom of three is telling her story of how she overcame a cancer diagnosis with support from her community, a place she finds comfort in and a little help from above.

What You Need To Know

  • Kate Sauers, a mother of three, battled Lymphoma cancer and beat it over the last year 

  • Kate relied on her community, her faith, and the Carol Jenkins Barnett United Way Children's Resource Center

  • She now teaches a Learning with Littles mommy class at Immanuel Lutheran Church and School in Winter Haven

Kate Sauers gets emotional recalling her journey in the last year and a half.

“This picture is really special because this is at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa,” Sauers said.

She met with a Lymphoma specialist who told her exactly what she needed to hear.

“And we saw a specialist there who had specialized in Lymphoma, and he said you are done, you’re in complete remission. There isn’t cancer there.”

Before that, doctors diagnosed her on her daughter’s third birthday.

Sauers is now cancer free, and she is relishing her mommy time.

She teaches a Learning with Littles class at Immanuel Lutheran Church and School in Winter Haven.

Her husband is the pastor there.

Sauers credits her village which helped her get through the challenges.

“I just think moms need a tribe of people,” she said. “Sometimes mommy is lonely, sometimes it’s hard.”

Ashley Wilson is a part of Kate’s tribe and told us why it helps in uncertain times.

“Having that tribe or that village to be that sounding board,” Wilson said. “Oh, my kid’s doing this, is that okay? Like, what should we be doing and how should we be handling this?”

Most of all, Sauers leaned into her faith.

“I felt like God wanted me to be here still and that I had a purpose with these kiddos and that’s part of what kept me going,” said Sauers.

For her sense of self, this mommy also relied on a safe space.

“I didn’t tell people right away that I had cancer and so I was wearing a wig, and it was just nice to have a place to go where I could be just Kate the mom,” she said.

That is at the Carol Jenkins Barnett United Way Children’s Resource Center in Lakeland.

The Center helps families with early childhood development classes.

And it is a place Saures considers helped her be the best mommy, despite her condition.

“This has really given me the opportunity to do that when I was diagnosed with cancer, during cancer time and now.”

Where she has found healing in faith, community, and knowledge.