Transcend from Cancer to Birth. Reframing Illness Through Spirituality

Patients with colorectal cancer suffer from multiple physical and mental ailments that lead them to seek refuge in spirituality. The objective of this study was to understand how people with colorectal cancer experience spirituality during their illness. A phenomenological study was conducted with 12 patients with colorectal cancer, and the interviews were transcribed and analyzed into thematic meaning units. The experience of the participants with colorectal cancer is represented by a central theme called “from cancer to birth, reformulating the disease through spirituality” and the subthemes: “spirituality as a source of strength to face the disease”, “having faith in a supreme being who guides doctors, a way to lose the fear of death and disease”, “Living again after being condemned to die,” and “Transcending from cancer to birth”. It is concluded that transcending from cancer to birth through spirituality gives colorectal cancer patients the strength to face the disease, lose the fear of death, and give them hope to live again after being condemned to die. © 2026 Fernando Giraldo Piedrahita, Camilo Duque Ortíz y Andrés Felipe Tirado Otalvaro Licencia: este trabajo se comparte bajo la licencia de Atribución-NoComercial CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional de Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/