The head of the Anglican Church told BBC Wales in a special documentary, The Polish Doctor, that back in 1952, he was cured of a rare form of meningitis by a Polish immigrant doctor, Włodzimierz Bołądź.
The Pole told him that he had diagnosed the disease, discounted by others as simple flu,, thanks to experience gained in the treatment of children in a Jewish Ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland.
“‘I always remembered the name Dr Włodzimierz Bołądź, as I own my life to him,” the Archbishop said.
The future clergyman’s family lived in Ystradgynlais in the Swansea Valley at the time, which has been Dr Bołądź’s place of residence since 1951.
The doctor worked as a GP there for four decades, until his retirement in 1988. On 18 January 2012 he will celebrate his 102nd birthday.
Born in 1909, Włodzimierz Bołądź graduated in medicine from the Military Academy in Warsaw. He was captured by the Soviets after the Red Army invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939 but managed to escape.
He then joined the Polish resistance movement, in which he was responsible for blowing up vital infrastructures and carrying out assassinations.
Włodzimierz Bołądź was awarded the Military Cross of Merit for bravery but was captured for a second time after a colleague revealed his identify to the enemy while being tortured.
According to an account by his son, Paul, also a doctor, he was to be executed, but his wife managed to bribe the Gestapo, and instead he was sent to a concentration camp.
He was liberated by American forces in May 1945. After the war he worked at a military hospital in Nuremburg, until news reached him that his family was still alive.
Dr Bołądź subsequently joined Polish forces in Italy and worked at a military hospital in Ancona under the command of General Anders, before settling in the United Kingdom. (mk/pg)
Hear the story of Archbishop Rowan Williams and Dr Bołądź in the documentary by BBC Wales, 'The Polish Doctor' here.