Karate enthusiast Pastor Kevin Hill could floor a man with a single blow.
But when he developed a rare illness that made blood pour through his skin, the father-of-four spent a year on his back in hospital.
While doctors fought to discover the cause, the former missionary died twice before being brought back to life.
Kevin, 55, pictured above during his hospital treatment, says his miraculous healing from an illness that affects only five people in the UK is due to God answering prayer partners from all over the world.
And he added how hundreds of people told him that his suffering brought miracles into their own lives.
“When I started to feel ill, doctors were baffled,” he explained. “Dead skin was eating healthy skin on my legs and sides, causing blood to pour out uncontrollably. At one point I had to be given five pints of blood in a day.”
Painful blisters the size of dinner plates and prone to infection formed, and he suffered from water retention and heart problems.
It was a far cry from the happy-go-lucky life he led as a young man growing up in Sheffield.
“I didn’t know much about God or the Bible,” said Kevin. “I was more interested in having a good time.”
But, in 1985, Billy Graham held a crusade in Sheffield.
“I was 17 and I thought I’d hear him and decide whether God existed and what, if anything, it had to do with me,” said Kevin.
“I liked his preaching and I went up to the altar call. I just knew I had to respond. I said (the sinner’s prayer) and suddenly I felt God’s love flood my whole being. I’d never experienced anything like it before. I knew then God was real and so was His love for me.”
Kevin joined a church and felt a call to become a missionary. Within a few years, he found himself working in Taiwan, where he taught English. It was also where he met his wife, Camille. The couple married in 2002 and worked together at a mission in Taiwan before returning to Britain in 2008.
In 2021, the family’s happiness was shattered when Kevin’s illness struck.
“As my condition worsened, doctors told me I died twice. They didn’t believe I would survive.
“Sometimes I felt so alone and would cry out to God. I never felt he had abandoned me; I just couldn’t explain what was happening or why. My faith and joy remained strong and I would pray and even sing my favourite hymns quietly while the blood oozed from my body.”
That was when Camille started to recruit prayer partners, firstly members of their local church and then from around the world.
“Camille came to the hospital with our computer. She set up a Zoom meeting with Christians in Canada, America, France, China, Malaysia, Australia and Kenya to name just a few countries. People in churches all over the world sent videos saying how they were praying for me. They in turn asked even more people to pray.”
Gradually, Kevin’s condition improved, much to the surprise of the hospital. He was told most people with calciphylaxis did not recover, often dying from infections.
Last year, the pastor was allowed back to his Derby home. He said: “God used the year I was bedridden to work miracles and healings in the lives of others.
“A number of people told me, while they were praying for me, they too received healing. That year-long hospitalisation brought many people to faith in Jesus.”
