Pastor B.J. Relefourd views cancer with a surprising perspective. "I find (cancer) to be my jewel in the rough." Going through cancer, she says, allowed her to share the experience with others and provided a focus that has become her life’s work.

In 1993, B.J. found a lump during her monthly self-exam. Still in her 30s, she went for her first mammogram which showed an abnormality in her left breast. "When they gave me the diagnosis, I just dropped to my knees. My children were young…," she remembers. "I had no idea what this would entail. At that time, in my community, in the African-American community, breast cancer was just not discussed very much."

"I couldn’t believe it. This could not be happening to me. I had just started in the ministry; I was a young woman, just getting a sense of myself. Why was this happening now? I had quit smoking. I changed my life and things should be rosy," she says. B.J. had radiation and a lumpectomy. Cancer was also discovered in the lymph nodes, so a partial mastectomy was recommended and performed.

"After the fear, and the tears, and the denial, and the grief, I pulled myself from my boot straps and asked -- What am I to learn from this? Out of this was born my need and my calling to speak to other women and to educate them about breast cancer."

For sixteen years, B.J. has been speaking, and traveling, and working with women of all ages so they won’t be fearful. Now Pastor B.J., she and her husband of 29 years formed Vision of Life Church, ministering to the whole person and meeting all types of needs – from food and clothing to spiritual concerns. She founded Women of Power, a group dedicated to fostering self-awareness and self-worth among women.

"Prayer and my family were my comfort," says Pastor B.J. "If I were to give advice, I would first say – cry. You don’t have to be strong for anyone." But this woman of power is also a woman of action and so she also advises, "Seek a second opinion. Find a good oncologist. Find out about different treatments available to you."

"I want to do what I can to share and spread the good news that there is help."