CLEVELAND, Ohio — An Ohio mother is thanking God for protecting her and unborn son after she refused an abortion last year following a cancer diagnosis.

Aleks Patete, 28, even believes that her pregnancy was a gift from God to save her life.

Last November, she went to University Hospital Cleveland for an ultrasound, and was informed that doctors had discovered a cyst on her ovary. It turned out to be cancerous.

“The cancer could have progressed a lot further, and we would have had no idea if I wasn’t for my pregnancy,” Patete told People Magazine this past week. “God sent D.J. to save my life.”

So as doctors recommended that she obtain an abortion, she knew she couldn’t do such a thing.

“He saved my life,” Patete said. “Now it was my turn to save his life.”

Therefore, doctors talked her through various chemotherapy treatments that had little risk of harming the baby, and she agreed to proceed.

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“It was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make,” Patete recalled. “But we had to weigh our options: If I didn’t do anything, I put my life at risk. If I did something, was I putting the baby at risk?”

As the weeks went by and she received good reports that her baby was okay, Patete continued with her chemotherapy treatments. It was a difficult several months as she often felt sick and tired.

But she made it through, and in April, three weeks after completion of her chemotherapy treatment, Patete gave birth to a son she named D.J.

“It was just beautiful,” she told People Magazine. “And he’s the sweetest baby, always smiling and just a joy.”

As Patete looks back at the ordeal, she knows that it is the hand of God that sustained her and D.J.

“I think about the things that could have happened and what could have gone wrong, and there’s no other reason than the grace of God that everything worked out and we are both alive,” she said. “I truly think God was watching over us.”

Romans 8:28 reads, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”