There’s not much that rattles Tameria Brown, 41, of Pompano Beach. The gospel singer, author and sexual abuse survivor has beaten cancer not once, but three times. She has experienced more hardships than most people face in a lifetime, but powers through with positivity, grace and spunk.

It was that amazing spirit that enabled her to perform in her gospel church choir less than a week after one-third of her liver was removed following a battle with colorectal cancer in June 2021.

“I wanted to be in church and thank God for my recovery,” Brown said. “I’ve been singing gospel in church every Sunday since I was a child. Following my surgeries, I would stay seated but was still able to sing and felt fine.”

The warning signs started last summer, when Brown began experiencing extreme stomach pain that became so severe that she went to the emergency room. The diagnosis was colon cancer and Mufaddal Ghadiali, M.D., a surgeon at Broward Health North, removed a tumor the size of a grapefruit from her colon.

As a standard practice, Brown was fitted with a colostomy bag following her procedure. Remarkably, she was walking around the hospital floor two days after surgery, home within three days and back in church the following Sunday. Unfortunately, the cancer had metastasized into her liver. Mehmet F. Hepgur, M.D., an oncologist at Broward Health North, prescribed seven rounds of chemotherapy to help shrink the size of the tumor.

On Feb. 14, 2022 Omar Rashid, M.D., a robotic surgeon at Broward Health, successfully removed the tumor, also the size of a grapefruit, from her liver. As it was Valentine’s Day, she says she really felt the love from Rashid in the operating room even though the intricate surgery was further complicated by the sheer size and position of the tumor that was in close proximity to a main artery. “I actually had to turn her liver around to access the tumor,” Rashid said. “Considering how intense and strenuous this operation was, Tameria’s recovery is remarkable.”

Later that night, she had an urge to get out of bed and stand up, so she did. Brown credits her incredibly rapid recovery to the top-level surgeons and superb care, as well as her personal strength and spirituality.

This past year, despite the pandemic, she beat both colon and liver cancer. Back in 2004, she overcame non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

“The first time I was diagnosed with cancer it was pretty drastic. I was crying all the time and thinking ‘Oh God I’m going to die,’” Brown said. “This time my faith was strengthened. God healed my body before, and I knew he would do it again. When I was scared, I just prayed and would feel better.”

Brown also credits her great support system. Her mother Ollie Brown and aunt Michele Knight lovingly cared for her following her cancer treatments and were always on call to help.

“Michele is there all the time making sure I take my medicine, eat healthy and do what I need to do for my health.”

With cancer in the rearview window for a third time, Brown has returned to walking three miles a day and sharing her inspirational story of recovery to others coping with difficult situations.

“There’s a solution to every problem,” she says. Keep your mind focused on positive things and when problems arise, we all have the grace to carry on and persevere.”

For other information visit Broward-Health.org/BeatCancer