HOUSTON—Lanny Hall, past president of three Texas Baptist universities, has been diagnosed with lymphoma and will begin chemotherapy at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston on Jan. 22.
In a Jan. 15 Facebook post, Hall announced that over the previous six weeks, he and his wife Carol had “been on a new, unexpected journey.”
“Last month, I was diagnosed with lymphoma,” he wrote.
After a series of medical tests in Abilene and in Houston, the couple met with a physician at M.D. Anderson on Jan. 14 to learn more about the diagnosis and recommended treatment.
“I have Stage IV Follicular Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma,” Hall wrote. “The good news is that it is treatable and, perhaps, curable, depending on how my body responds to the treatment. The bad news, of course, is that this could be life-threatening.
“I had a PET CT scan and bone marrow biopsy last week which revealed that there are numerous evidences of the cancer in my body, including in/on several bones.”
Hall reported back, hip and thigh pain over the past several months, which he described as “very uncomfortable and annoying” but “manageable.”
He will begin treatment Jan. 22 as an outpatient at M.D. Anderson, receiving three days of chemotherapy every two and a half weeks for four and a half months. After one or two rounds of treatment in Houston, Hall noted he hopes to transfer to Abilene for the duration of his chemotherapy regimen.
Prayer requested
“I ask for prayers as I begin my treatment and prayers for ‘Nurse Carol’ as she cares for me,” he wrote.
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Hall added he is “at peace about all this,” saying his faith is strong and adding he and his family “will rely on God to guide and protect us during each day and every step in this process.”
Hall served more than a quarter-century as a university president at three Baptist General Convention of Texas-affiliated schools—Hardin-Simmons in Abilene, Howard Payne in Brownwood and Wayland Baptist in Plainview.
At HSU, he actually served two terms as president—from 1991 to 2001 and again from 2009 to 2016—along with a stint as HSU chancellor from 2001 to 2003.
Hall served three terms in the Texas House of Representatives, and also worked as a congressional aide, a public school educator, a state agency executive and a university professor.
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