Patsy Ramsey is fighting a desperate battle for life after the cancer she thought she’d beaten spread to her brain.
Now friends fear the worst for 48–yearold Patsy. “No one wants to say the word ‘dying’ but she’s in bad shape and I think it looks very, very grim,” said a family source. “But Patsy’s a trouper and she’ll never give in.”
As recently as Christmas, the former Miss America finalist was confident she had won her fourth bout with ovarian cancer in 12 years.
But two months ago Patsy’s doctors at the National Institutes of Health hospital in Bethesda, Md., ordered a routine MRI — and found new tumors.
“The cancer had spread to the adrenal glands and her brain, where there are several tumors,” said the family source. “Patsy was just devastated — she hadn’t even experienced any new symptoms.”
The terrible news follows last week’s National Enquirer report of a dramatic breakthrough in the JonBenet murder case that could finally clear the Ramseys.
Since the diagnosis Patsy has moved from Charlevoix, Mich., to her father’s home in Roswell, Ga., to be near a clinic that can provide state-of- the-art treatment to save her life. She’s undergoing gamma knife radio surgery, a non-invasive technique that delivers high doses of radiation precisely targeting the tumors, according to the source.
Churches around the country are praying for Patsy. “Our prayer group believes in miracles,” said Janet Boss, education director of the Community Reformed Church in Charlevoix.
At Christmas — near the anniversary of JonBenet’s brutal murder — Patsy seemed well and made a pilgrimage to the little girl’s grave.
The first public indication that her condition was deteriorating came in early April, when she was unable to accompany husband John to speak at a church in Fresno, Calif.
He talked frankly about her cancer to 1,700 worshippers. “He, like the rest of us, believes that her recovery is up to God,” Lisa Schumacher, administrator of the New Covenant Community Church, told a reporter.
“Patsy has always said that JonBenet was the 3-year-old angel who helped her survive cancer the first time. The saddest thing is that now she has no JonBenet to comfort her. And she needs a miracle.”
