Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn resident Dorothy Providence says she continues to give God thanks for each day she spends above earth, stating that she has been breast cancer-free for 36 years.
“Everything is fine,” Providence, whose late husband, Randolph Providence, was a native of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, told Caribbean Life on Tuesday, Oct. 7.
“I’m still doing my follow-ups – blood work – every three months,” added Providence, a long-standing member of the 135-year-old Fenimore Street United Methodist Church (FSUMC), at the corner of Rogers Avenue, in Brooklyn, where she serves as the financial secretary and communion steward, and sings with the church’s Gospel Chorus Choir.
“I don’t have any aches and pains; the cancer is in remission,” continued Providence. “I’m healed. I thank God every day.
“And God is good all the time,” she said. “Even in bad times, he’s still good.”
Providence, 82, said that, when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer, in July 1981, she said to herself: “‘I did not give myself cancer. I said, ‘This body is not mine; it’s God. He created it, so he knows everything about it.’
“I believe God does not put no more on you than he thinks you can bear,” added Providence, born in Port Hudson, Louisiana, the eldest of four children to the late Mollie and Archie Simmons.
Providence said she volunteers at FSUMC Monday to Thursday.
“I thank God for continuing to give me the strength,” she said. “I’m still very active in the church.”
Besides the three-month check-up, Providence said she takes a PET scan every four years.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, positron emission tomography (PET) scans detect early signs of cancer, heart disease, and brain conditions. They involve an injection of a safe radioactive tracer that helps detect diseased cells.
The clinic says a PET scan machine has “a donut-shaped hole your body passes through while lying on a motorized exam table.”
It says a PET scan uses “a safe injectable radioactive chemical called a radiotracer, and a device called a PET scanner, to show images of your organs and tissues at work.”
The Cleveland Clinic says the scanner “detects diseased cells that absorb large amounts of the radiotracer, indicating a potential health problem.
“Healthcare providers frequently use PET scans to help diagnose cancer and assess cancer treatment,” it says. “They can also assess certain heart and brain issues with the scan.”
The Cleveland Clinic says some hospitals now use a hybrid PET/MRI scan that “creates extremely high-contrast images.
“Providers mainly use this type of scan for diagnosing and monitoring cancers of the soft tissues (brain, head and neck, liver and pelvis),” it says.
Providence – who has three biological children, three step-children, 11 grand-children, three great-grand-children – said she thanks “God for His grace and mercy for where He has brought me from, and the strength He gives me to continue doing the volunteer work at Fenimore Street United Methodist Church and elsewhere.”
She said that, after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she retired from the United States Postal Service in New York, where she worked in several positions in the Human Resources Department.
She said that after having surgery in July 1981, she received no treatments or medications.
“However, the cancer returned in 1997,” she said. “I then had a second surgery, where I received six weeks of radiation and three sessions of chemotherapy.
“I had surgery for the third time for breast cancer; and, though it was not cancerous, I needed no treatments but was given medications for five years,” added Providence, who also serves as treasurer for Fenimore Senior Center, Inc.
She said she held the position of president of the Decatur Patchen Ralph Block Association for several years in her community of Bedford Stuyvesant.
Providence is also a member of Central Brooklyn Lions Club, Inc., and she has held many positions, including president.
She said she was “proud” of her age and would like to surpass the age when her mother died, on Thanksgiving Day, 1998, at 84. Her father died when he was 52.
Providence said her grandfather, Archibald Simmons, was “a slave in Port Hudson – that’s where the Civil War was fought.”
