Traffic stop turns into powerful moment of prayer between trooper and a father with cancer

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- A powerful exchange took place between a father and a North Carolina state trooper.

It happened in March when Dr. Ashlye Wilkerson was traveling back from Duke University hospital in Durham, where her father had been receiving chemotherapy for stage four colon cancer.

As they were driving through Rowan County, Wilkerson was pulled over for speeding.

But it was her dad, deacon Anthony Geddis who spoke up, hoping to protect his daughter.

"He was still a little weak because he had a treatment that day he cleared his voice and said, 'this is my baby girl, she's driving me back home from treatment I had chemo," Wilkerson recalled.

Trooper, Jared Doty, said, "At that time I knew there is no way I'm writing this lady a ticket. I had to sit in there for a while just to compose myself to figure out what to say when I went back."

What Wilkerson and her dad didn't know at the time was that Doty had previously been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and required surgery to remove his colon.

He had only been back on duty a few months at the time of the stop.

That's when he asked to pray with the family.

Wilkerson snapping a photo of the moment.

Unfortunately, her father died two months later, in May. That's why she's sharing the photo now as a tribute to her father and to the trooper's moment of compassion.