I lost half my right lung to cancer. Pope Leo's diagnosis gives me hope

When Pope Leo told the crowd in St.

Peter's Square on Sunday that doctors had found "a small, localized nodule" in his lung, the reassurances came fast.

Most nodules are benign, media medical experts quickly said.

Probably nothing to worry about.

I heard the same reassurances about my own lung not long ago.

They were wrong then, and on Tuesday the Vatican confirmed they were wrong now.

The nodule was adenocarcinoma, lung cancer.

Surgeons removed the lower lobe of the Holy Father's right lung through a few small incisions, guided by a camera rather than an open chest, and he was back in his room the same afternoon.

POPE LEO DIAGNOSED WITH LUNG CANCER AFTER SURGEONS REMOVE PART OF RIGHT LUNG, VATICAN SAYS That is almost exactly what happened to me.

Half of my right lung was removed just 12 months ago, and I was running just four weeks after that.

So, my first reaction when I heard the pope's diagnosis was not dread.

It was hope.

I was 43, a mother of four, a daily runner, and the daughter of a lung doctor.

The morning I learned I had lung cancer, I had already completed a six-mile run without a hint that anything was wrong.