BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A man who won the fight against cancer was losing the fight against his medical bills, until an anonymous donor stepped in.

It was last September that George Ceja received devastating news from his doctor.

"He said, 'You have colon cancer. It came out positive. And you also have a tumor on your bladder,'" said Ceja.

Ceja then had surgery, only to find out he also had stage 2 liver cancer. The following six months of chemotherapy was not the worst part.

"We've been going through a rough year with my surgery. I lost my truck. I lost my business. I am in debt," said Ceja.

And he lost his health insurance. Ceja says his family barely survived off his wife's part-time job and his disability check.

"We would just count our pennies and dimes and try to make them last," said Ceja.

Then last week, a woman walked into the Comprehensive Blood And Cancer Center wanting to make an anonymous donation. The woman had been helping to pay her friend's medical bills at CBCC when that friend died of cancer, so she wanted to continue paying somebody's bill.

"And they picked me," said Ceja.

A CBCC official called Ceja to tell him the woman had paid off his $600 medical bill.

"Just blew our minds. We can't even understand it. We were in shock because I've never had anybody give me anything," said Ceja.

Ceja says words cannot describe his gratitude.

"A big blessing. It's a big load off our chest. It helps knowing I have one less thing to worry about," said Ceja.

Dr. Ravi Patel of the CBCC says it may be one less thing to worry about, but one big thing to remember.

"I think it's important to recognize, yeah, there's a lot of things that are bad in the world, but there are a lot of good things happening in the world, so it's really encouraging to see that, and it's inspiring," said Patel.

Ceja says that donation has inspired him to pay it forward. "And I'm ready, so when I go to work I can somehow go back and do something like that myself and donate some money to a patient," said Ceja.

The donation got the ball rolling when it comes to good news. Not only has Ceja's bill been paid off, but he is in remission and doctors have given him permission to go back to work at the end of the month.