Upon arriving at Cathedral Catholic High School in San Diego, Newman was wheeled down to the school’s Manchester Stadium. There, he found the entire school of students, faculty, and staff waiting for him.
As depicted in a now-famous photograph, the entire assembly prayed over Newman. That was when, he said, he felt a divine effect running through him.
“I felt this warm sensation like when you take clothes out of the drier,” he said. “That was God healing me.”
The family subsequently traveled to Florida, where Newman underwent scans prior to the experimental treatment.
“When the doctors in San Diego received the results from the Florida scan back, there was no tumor,” he said. “It was gone.”
Foundation, movie arise from ‘miracle’ healing
Following Newman’s astonishing healing, he launched the Miracle at Manchester Foundation, named after the school prayer session that he says resulted in God’s healing his brain tumor.
The foundation says its mission is to “connect every hospitalized child with their friends, family, and school, enabling them to cope with the separation during long-term treatment for cancer.” The initiative works to distribute iPads to pediatric cancer patients to give them entertainment and stimulation during lengthy hospital stays.
Newman said the idea came after he spent long hours in hospital rooms during his cancer treatments.
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“I was one of the older ones in the hospital at the time,” Newman said. “I noticed how the TV channels there were meant to appeal to the younger patients. They didn’t really have any form of entertainment for older kids.”
“The other kids that I was with, that I became friends with, they didn’t have any forms of entertainment,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to be kind of given an iPad from my freshman year of high school, where we had to have them. I had a little side entertainment that a lot of other kids didn’t have.”
The foundation on its website says it has already partnered with several hospitals in order to distribute iPads at pediatric oncology wards. It solicits $450 donations in order to facilitate these efforts.
The foundation says it further works at “recruiting local volunteers to help us in our mission to support children” undergoing cancer treatments, including connecting with young patients and organizing celebrity visits for them.
The story’s inspiration has even reached Hollywood, with last year seeing the release of a major motion picture, “Miracle at Manchester,” starring Eddie McClintock and Dean Cain.
