Donna Green-Goodman's story probably will sound familiar.

After all, every year 192,200 American women are diagnosed with breast cancer. They get scared. They become depressed. They either live or die.

According to the Women's Information Network Against Breast Cancer, the disease claims a life every 12 minutes.

That alone helps explain why Green-Goodman believes she has "Somethin' to Shout About!" and why she's written a book by that name.

When doctors diagnosed her cancer in 1996, they told her she had two to five years to live.

"I was stunned,"' said Green-Goodman, the owner of Lifestyle Principles Inc. in Decatur. But the 42-year-old Lithonia mother didn't die, and she has been cancer-free for nearly five years.

Many women have experienced similar outcomes. If detected early, the overall breast cancer survival rate is greater than 90 percent.

"Early detection is the best protection," said Dr. Rogsbert Phillips, a local breast cancer specialist.

What sets Green-Goodman's story apart, perhaps, is the unconventional way she fought the disease and has managed to keep it at bay. She rejected the standard chemotherapy and radiation treatments and opted to change her lifestyle and depend on God for healing.

"When I explained to one oncologist that I believed in God, he quickly said that he did too, but that wasn't enough; I had to have this chemo or I would die," she writes in ''Somethin'."

Undaunted, she arranged for an ''anointing service'' as outlined in the Bible's Book of James: "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick. . . ."

Days later, she headed for the Wildwood Lifestyle Center and Hospital in Wildwood, near the Tennessee border, to learn how making lifestyle changes could aid in recovery and maintaining good health. She was put on a strict vegetarian diet and was prescribed exercise, morning devotions and several herbal preparations.

Once home, Green-Goodman returned to her doctor for radiation treatments. After four weeks, she said, she could endure no more. She even refused orally administered drugs, while she continued to eat and exercise the way the doctors at Wildwood had instructed. And she prayed.

In mid-April 1997, nearly a year after the initial diagnosis, Green-Goodman returned to her oncologist for a checkup. Doctors could find no sign of cancer. They still can't.

"She is doing well, and I hope she continues to do well," said Phillips, who treated her. But he added, "I think people really need to understand that what works for Donna may not work for them, and based on pure scientific knowledge, the majority of the time this type of treatment doesn't work. People do much better with medical treatment than without."

Green-Goodman details her story and more than 50 healthy recipes in ''Somethin' to Shout About,'' available at ABC Christian Bookstores and from online sources.

　　From Healthy.net