How our Ministry Got Started

Jerry McCormick was diagnosed in October 2022 with Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer. He was told that without treatment he would live about 6-months and with treatment he would live about 1-year. He wanted to live with the goal of becoming a long-term survivor and began taking treatments. Jerry's deep Catholic faith gave him the courage and strength he needed to not only fight the disease for as long as he could but also to provide comfort to others he met fighting cancer or other serious medical issues. He fought hard for 15 months before succumbing to the cancer on January 9, 2024. 

Jerry's relationship with Jesus Christ really deepened throughout his illness. Shortly after his diagnosis, a niece gave Jerry a comfort cross which he cherished and prayed with throughout the course of his disease. He constantly held on to that comfort cross which did provide him a great deal of Peace, Comfort, Strength and in his case, Spiritual Healing. It was only after Jerry's passing that his only brother, John, found out that Jerry purchased several comfort crosses  and distributed them to patients at the infusion clinic where he received his chemo treatments. He told his wife, Rita, that if a comfort cross brings even one person closer to Jesus Christ then it will have been worth it. That is when John decided we needed to continue Jerry's legacy by providing comfort crosses to those suffering from some form of cancer or other serious medical issue. That was the start of our Ministry. We have purchased comfort crosses directly from the birthplace of Jesus, Bethlehem. We started out by providing comfort crosses and prayer cards to people we knew and knew of through other contacts. We never expected such positive feeback that we got for each one of these crosses. Some people even cried as they got one of the comfort crosses because it was such a comfort to them. After distributing about 70 comfort crosses we decided to expand our Ministry beyond our contacts and we are proud to partner with The Dayton Foundation, which serves as our 501(c)(3) fiscal partner. This not only allows us to continue purchasing crosses but also to provide money for cancer research for several different types of cancer. Now that we have teamed with the Dayton Foundation, we have created this website to  provide information about various cancers (this will grow over time) as well as requesting comfort crosses. We will also share patient stories for those who want to tell about their journeys. 

If you, or someone you know is suffering from cancer or another serious medical issue and you would like to request a comfort cross, please click on the request form located on in the headers at the top of the web page..