Patricia Frazier holds on to her faith with breast cancer

Bronx resident Patricia Ann Frazier says she holds on to her faith in coping with breast cancer.
Frazier, 73, who has been living in the northeast Bronx for the last 49 years, told Caribbean Life Thursday night that, though she is not currently undergoing treatment for the deadly disease, she ensures that she has yearly mammograms.
“I coped with breast cancer knowing that I have a purpose on this earth – if it is only to help one person make it and the love of my family,” said Frazier, who was born in Chester, PA on Sept. 8, 1949.
In 2002, Frazier, a retiree, said she discovered a lump in her left breast, through self-examination.
She said, since she was scheduled for her yearly mammogram, she did not say anything to anyone, because she knew that “the test would show that something is wrong.”
“To my surprise, I received a letter saying everything is normal; ‘see you next year,’” said Frazier, who, along with her brother and sister, was raised by her maternal grandmother in St. Stephen, SC.
“I made an appointment to see my doctor,” she added. “He confirmed there was a lump and asked me why I didn’t say something.
“My response was, ‘why should I, isn’t that what the test is for?,’” Frazier continued. “He then scheduled me for a sonogram to see clearly if there was a problem. He didn’t call into his office; he called me to tell me I had breast cancer.
“I did not cry or feel bad for myself,” she said, “My thoughts went back to my praying grandma, who taught me how to pray. It was praying time and not crying time. I held on to my faith.”
Frazier, who attended elementary and high school in South Carolina – “where I got my southern accent” – said had a lumpectomy to remove the cancer cells.
She also said she had five lymph nodes removed from her left underarm, and underwent chemotherapy and radiation “to make sure all the cancer cells were dead.”
“I don’t remember how many weeks of chemo (chemotherapy); it didn’t make me sick,” said Frazier, who, after graduating from high school in 1967, reunited with her mother in New York.
She also could not remember how many weeks of radiation she underwent, adding that “it didn’t burn my skin.”
Frazier, who had worked as a secretary for several companies in lower Manhattan and the Bronx — the last being a firm in the Bronx that made wooden office furniture “out of wood from as far as Africa” — said she continues to place trust in the Almighty in addressing her ordeal.
“God had me covered by His blood,” she said, reaffirming that her faith has seen her through many travails.