JT: Eric, can you tell us about your background and current involvement in Hope Baptist Church?
ES: I'm an American, formerly an electronics engineer working for a defence contractor before the Lord called me to vocational Christian service. After seminary I was a pastor for a deaf congregation for several years while working as an engineer before being called overseas. My wife Lisa and I came to England in 2002 for the purpose of planting a church, now called Hope Baptist Church, in the village of Rossington, Doncaster. I am currently the pastor of HBC.
JT: Can you tell us about your recent diagnosis?
ES: In June 2025 I was diagnosed with local aggressive prostate cancer. A bone scan indicated that it is currently confined to the prostate. A friend who is a surgeon also said that the MRI scan indicated that the cancer appeared to have not yet reached the lymph nodes.
Later in 2025, I had a radical prostatectomy: total removal of the prostate and the accompanying lymph nodes as well. The procedure involved a robotic device called the da Vinci machine, which allows for real precision in delicate operations.
Despite my optimistic expectations, I was informed that, due to the location and degree of the cancer, I would need to have hormone deprivation and radiation therapy in addition to surgery.
It was a real shock. I had only planned, researched, and presumed that a relatively quick and easy surgery would be enough. But I had prayed for clarity, and this is what I got.
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