What would you give up to save your life? This was a question facing Ronnie Hawkins one day in 2003...

Shortly after being diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2002, Hawkins learned of a 16-year-old "healer" named Adam who had allegedly cured several other ailing people. Hawkins -- with an inoperable tumor the size of an orange wrapped around the superior mesenteric vein in his pancreas and a life expectancy measured in months -- instructed his manager to call the psychic surgeon and make him a remarkable offer. "Tell that kid to give it a try," he said, "and if he can pull this off, I'm going to..." What?

a) give him $16,000,000.

b) fly him to Vegas for a month-long party.

c) send him on an all-expenses-paid trip around the world.

d) send him an autographed T-Shirt.

Incredibly, after the procedure -- during which Hawkins's stomach "started jumping like in that Alien movie" and he saw his "skin moving on the outside" -- the tumor disappeared and he was later declared completely cancer-free. And Adam? He got an autographed T-shirt.

["When you know you're dying," Hawkins later remarked, "you'll eat a dog turd if you think it'll help."]

[Ronnie Hawkins was once famed for his stories of backstage pussy-eating contests.]