The Rev. Dr. Unnia Pettus, who has overcome many challenges in the past, is currently fighting breast cancer among other illnesses, yet keeps her faith in God and remains an active, giving and ministering member of the community. (Courtesy Photo)
Interviewed By Micha Green
AFRO D.C. Editor
mgreen@afro.com
The Rev. Dr. Unnia L. Pettus is an educator, minister, and a cancer, stroke and domestic violence fighter and advocate.
AFRO: Please tell us about this bout with cancer and what are some ways it is different than your previous cancer diagnoses considering the COVID-19 pandemic?
UP: I’m currently still dealing with the impact of the Gastrological surgery, the renal carcinoma surgery and metastatic breast cancer. I’m now in 2020, I started on chemotherapy in December of 2019 and completed that the end of May 2020, and I also started immunotherapy when I started the chemotherapy and this immunotherapy is known as a wonder drug called Herceptin. Unfortunately it has a bad side effect of impacting your heart, which has caused the other health problem that I have call cardiomyopathy and therefore stages of heart failure A, B, and C When I first started the chemotherapy I was in stage B, but my heart failure has yet worsened so now I’m in stage C. Stage D is where you would need a heart transplant, so I’m in stage C . I am constantly in the hospital going through painful biopsies, tests, ultrasounds, pet scans, MRIs. Also I’ve had three brain tumors microadenoma, pituitary gland from 2010 to current they’ve been recurrent they’ve been benign I had a stroke in 2012 and was paralyzed on the right side I was in a wheelchair stay in the wheelchair for approximately about a year or so and I still have right side weakness throughout all of this. I am similar to a chat with Boseman. Most people didn’t know I was going and dealing with these cancer things unless they actually saw me lose weight. I was in the hospital frequently, but they did not know the magnitude of what I was battling and neither did I until I had genetic counseling…
AFRO: What do you want people to know you’ve accomplished?
UP: Despite it all I want people to know that I’ve always been positive and a hard worker. I have had many accomplishments, I’ve had my own public relations firm since 2005, May of 2005… My first client was Johnnie Cochran, my mentor Ofield Dukes recommended me and I helped him open up the Johnnie Cochran Firm. I also worked with Mr. Dukes on the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinners and National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) award judging, helping him coordinate the papers, the judges and the entries. I also worked with him on Bethune Cookman dinners and we did a lot of things with our National Council of Negro women.
I want to say that I’ve been able to also work through my ministry of “Nobody But God Ministries,” which is an outreach ministry focusing on women and children who have been impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. It’s based in Washington, D.C., but I do a lot of work with the Maryland and Virginia advocates in the DMV. We’re a team and we pretty much confidentially help victims and survivors get to safe houses, temporary living, get restraining orders, get protection orders, change their names, move away, whatever they need for them to be safe… During this pandemic the domestic violence has been rising because people have been stuck home with their abusers and have lost their jobs and income so a lot of things have been happening behind closed doors…
I’ve been able to teach at Howard off and on for more than 10 years in the capacity of teaching Public Relations on an undergraduate and graduate level, as well as Business courses and Entrepreneurship on the graduate level. I’ve been an award-winning adjunct teacher, which I’m very proud of… In addition I am a preacher. I’ve had the pleasure of not only having my own ministry, but being affiliated with wonderful congregations in which I’ve served in various capacities… to preaching and teaching on the radio to doing pro bono public relations for the churches and doing a lot of political interaction between the president’s local community leaders, who want to come visit churches and being kind of the go-to person for it. So I’m always doing public relations, I’m always doing ministry and it seems like I’m always doing something with politics that’s been my life now the three P’s.
I’ve taught at Howard University, Bowie State and actually started teaching at Howard two years before I received my doctorate so I started in 2001.. My first full-time job teaching at Bowie had a two to three year contract, but I contracted colon cancer, so unfortunately I wasn’t able to finish it out, but the Lord blessed and opened up doors for me to go back to Howard. I’m also currently part of the staff of Strayer University, teaching Master of Business courses for graduate students, a lot of international civilian and military students. I have not been able to teach or work since June the day before my gastrological surgery.
AFRO: How can people support you during this time?
UP: I do have a Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/v8yw5u-help-unnia-pettus-fight-cancer.
It is hosted by “Friends of Unnia,” directed by a lady that was a colleague, a professor in New York, named Shelly Spector Zuckerben. All the funds go directly to medical expenses- from co-pays to transportation back-and-forth to the hospital, to doctors appointments, to holistic treatment, as well as treatment that has not been fully covered because they cover 80 percent, but then you have to pay 20 percent with your healthcare. I do hope the Affordable Healthcare Act will not be overturned by President Trump, because I do have many pre-existing conditions now and insurance is already ridiculous as a choice between insurance, rent or chemo- and you’re really just living on the brink. I have no funds. I have been able to go through all of my savings, 401(k), all of my items of value have been sold or pawned, so I’ve really been in financial dire straits. I am down to my last penny and grateful for anyone who can help.
I pray that there is someone who can just be a sponsor of the book that I want to write, which is an updated memoir. My first book was called Nobody But God: A Journey of Faith From Tears to Triumph,” and I now want to write a book called “Faith Strong: An Overcomer’s Journey From Hospice to Healed. So I want to write that book to encourage people that it does not matter what your diagnosis is, your destiny is what is determined by God and nothing will happen to you that He has not allowed or sent and He has the final say.
