Anne Graham Lotz grateful for prayers during cancer battle

Anne Graham Lotz, a daughter of the late evangelist Billy Graham, said Monday that she is grateful for the public outpouring of support and prayers since she announced last week that she has breast cancer.

Posted 8:48 p.m. Sep 10, 2018 — Updated 8:48 p.m. Sep 10, 2018

David Crabtree

, WRAL anchor/reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — Anne Graham Lotz, a daughter of the late evangelist Billy Graham, said Monday that she is grateful for the public outpouring of support and prayers since she announced last week that she has breast cancer.

Lotz announced on her website last week that she was diagnosed with cancer in August. She is scheduled for surgery Sept. 18.

"I wanted to position information. I didn't want to tell this person, have that person tell that person and then it begins to get weird, or people can spin it," she said in an interview with WRAL News. "I felt like I wanted to control the information that went out."

But she couldn't control the response, noting that she has been contacted from people worldwide who told her they were praying for her.

"I went to Lowe's to get some light bulbs and some birdseed, and the guy in back of me at the checkout counter looked at me and said, 'Anne, I got up this morning to pray for you,'" she said.

Lotz said she feels the power of the prayers as she confronts the latest challenge in her life.

"It was the same time of day, between 3 and 3:30 in the afternoon on August 17, the same time three years ago on that very same day – very same day, very same time – that I found my husband unresponsive in our pool," she said.

After losing her husband, Danny Lotz, her renowned father died in February. She credits her faith for allowing her to persevere.

"When you pass through the valley of the shadow of death, I will be with you," she said, quoting the Bible. "This is a valley of the shadow of death.

"It's not death, but it could be fatal if you don't deal with it," she added.

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