How Patricia Evelyn beat the odds

PATRICIA Evelyn is a positive, charismatic, fun-loving, family-oriented woman with a beautiful spirit, who’s used to beating the odds.

Growing up, Evelyn, 64, attended Wolmer’s Girls’ School where she says life was simple and she lived one day at a time.

“Life was happy-go-lucky. I was everywhere the bell rang and I lived a stress-free life,” she told All Woman.

She got married at 19 and had two children and entered the financial sector. But in September 1989, a few months before her 38th birthday, Evelyn, who was three months pregnant at the time, received health news that was not favourable.

“I took my husband to the doctor, who was a good friend of us both. She noticed a bulge in my neck and immediately gave me a letter of referral to an endocrinologist as she knew it had to do with my thyroid. I didn’t pay it any mind, but I had this good friend who told me that the lump was getting bigger, and he took me to his doctor who gave me a list of surgeons. I knew one who was an ENT specialist for my two kids with allergies, so I contacted him and he immediately scheduled the surgery,” she said.

But throughout the buzz, Evelyn said no one would tell her what was happening, and when she told the first doctor of the surgery, she hinted that it could be cancer.

“They didn’t say anything about the big ‘C’. When I informed the other doctor of the surgery she said, ‘You’re crazy! This doctor is crazy, because it is said that the cells move around in your body faster when you have a surgical procedure done’. And I said whatever, whatever it is to be it will be,” Evelyn said.

“She was already diagnosing me, but I wasn’t paying it any mind.”

But she said it was after the biopsy results came back that she knew she had thyroid cancer.

“When he [doctor] got the results he said ‘I have some good news for you. Yes, it was a tumour, but I cleaned out a lot of the good tissue surrounding it, we tested the whole area so you’re now cancer-free’, and he said there was no need for chemotherapy or radiation.”

Evelyn said 90 per cent of her thyroid gland was removed and a partial thryoidectomy was done, but she was told she would have to be on steroids for the rest of her life. She added that each year she has to do various tests as it’s a common cancer that can return.

Now the financial advisor at Sagicor Life, Evelyn’s journey of overcoming obstacles only increased as she admitted that she was a smoker and subsequently developed COPD — Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

“They said that the cancer was not as a result of smoking so I didn’t stop. Eventually I developed COPD, so anytime I get an infection in my chest I end up in the hospital and I usually get pneumonia. So I had to quit smoking,” she said.

Additionally, she shared that one major challenge she managed to rise above was letting go of an abusive relationship with her then husband, who is now deceased. This, she said, led her Woman Inc, which has now placed her in a position to encourage women.

“I think I’m in a position to help individuals let go. I was not able to at the time. He is deceased, so he was taken out of my life. I never thought I could have managed on my own, because he was the financial strength and he did everything. I always figured I couldn’t manage on my own and I would not leave,” she said.

But after he died, she realised that she did have the strength to go on and remain successful.

“I was out there on my own for four years with three kids. The insurance was just enough to pay off the mortgage. I never had any ‘dead lef’ as they would say, but I managed and I was successful. Now it makes me wonder why I didn’t leave him before,” she said.

Now remarried for 19 years, Evelyn is also a grandparent to six children and said she is happy with the partner she chose, and hopes to encourage other women to break free.

“I decided I wasn’t going into any other relationship like that and I trusted God and He found the right partner. People don’t think it happens to certain people, but every woman is at risk of domestic abuse,” she said.