Pastor and breast cancer survivor Patricia Gould-Champ turns 80 with Richmond gospel concert

RICHMOND, Va. — Dr. Patricia Gould-Champ has been called pastor, professor, queen mother and survivor. Now, as she turns 80, she is being celebrated by some of gospel music's biggest names.

Rev. Gould-Champ is the founder of Faith Community Church in Richmond, Virginia, where she served as senior pastor before stepping down three years ago.

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After a trip to Africa, she took on a new title.

"A queen mother in Africa is one who works alongside the official leadership and giving wisdom and guidance," Gould-Champ said.

She has also spent years guiding the next generation of faith leaders as a professor at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University.

CBS 6 talked with Gould-Champ in 2014 when she was battling breast cancer and sharing her story when she released her book detailing her breast cancer journey. Nearly 23 years after her breast cancer diagnosis, Gould-Champ remains a strong advocate for mammograms.

"The mammograms are so key because that's what had happened with me. I missed two mammograms and so I say to women sometimes we can get so busy not just with ourselves but I was caregiving for my parents and so sometimes we put ourselves on the back end but we cannot, we cannot," Gould-Champ said.

She also wants other women facing a breast cancer diagnosis to know it does not have to define them.

"It's not a death sentence, and we have to kind of live with altering, you know, some things in our lives, you know, we are more than our breasts, we're more than our hair," Gould-Champ said.

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Living life to the fullest is one lesson learned from her cancer battle.

"The last entry in the book I wrote — The Gospel According To Cancer — is I plan to live until I die," Gould-Champ said.

Former students and gospel artists Bishop William Murphy, Hezekiah Walker Jr. and Jason Nelson will bring their music ministries to Richmond to celebrate their former professor on September 10th at Saint Paul's Baptist Church.

"Here we are favored with a Queen that is yet in our midst that we can give flowers to while she's yet alive. We're going to do it an incredible way," Murphy said.

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Gould-Champ said she is humbled by the outpouring of support from her former students.

"I'm just blessed by their generosity, and it speaks to their heart too," Gould-Champ said.

She reflected on what it means to see those students — now prominent figures in gospel music — return to honor her.

"You know it was so interesting when they were in the class and all of the students were just going wild about all of the bishops and all of the artists that were in my class and I was like what what what? I didn't realize, even though I'd listened to their music, I didn't realize just how big they were and how humble they are." Gould-Champ said.

As she turns 80, Gould-Champ said the celebration reflects exactly what she values most.

"God's been awesome. Just surprised me on every end," Gould-Champ said.

Proceeds from the 80th birthday celebration concert will benefit the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology endowed scholarship and outreach programs at Faith Community Church.

The September 10 concert will be held at Saint Paul's Baptist Church at 4247 Creighton Road at 7 p.m. Tickets: www.drpatriciagouldchamp.com

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