Updated June 23rd, 2023

Young Breast Cancer Patient Says Group Prayers at Exactly the Same Each Day Have Helped Her Immensely During Fight: ‘God Has Worked Miracles’

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Leaning on Prayer Through Cancer

Nicole Taylor of the country music trio and viral TikTok group Taylor Red was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer a week after Thanksgiving in 2022.
She says that her friends and family praying for her at the same time every day has helped lead to successful treatments thus far.
Nicole Taylor is not alone in leaning on faith through cancer. A 2015 National Health Interview Survey found that 69% of cancer patients reported praying for their health compared to 45% of the general United States population.
Research also suggests that faith can have a positive effect on the life expectancy of people battling cancer. A study in The Journal of Medicine and Life suggests that people who have religious belonging can triumph cancer with more self-confidence and hope for the future.
Tom Evans, pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, says opening up to others, including God, after receiving a cancer diagnosis can help you cope with the intense feelings you may be having.

Faith has likely always played a role in social media star Nicole Taylor’s life. But a breast cancer diagnosis helped her see the power of prayer in a whole new light. The 32-year-old says group prayer from family, friends and followers – at the exact same time every day – has “worked miracles” and helped her immensely during her journey.

Nicole is one-third of Taylor Red a country music band consisting of 32-year-old red-headed identical triplets that have found great success on the video app TikTok.

She’s known for her infectious smile and “rocker rebel” spirit, but fans are seeing a new side of the bubbly social media personality as she shares details about her breast cancer battle.

Nicole found out she had breast cancer a week after Thanksgiving in 2022. But her journey towards a diagnosis started long before when she found something that “felt like a little AAA battery” in her breast in February 2022.

After a mammogram and breast exam in March or April of that year, she was told to keep an eye on the lump and return for another appointment later down the road.

“I was told to come back in six months,” she said in a March 2023 YouTube video.

“So, I was thinking you know because of my age, lack of breast cancer in my family, that it was a fibroadenoma (a painless, unilateral, non-cancerous breast tumor) which is what a lot of people or probably anybody would have thought with all the answers I was giving.”

When she returned to the doctor for another mammogram, she discovered the now red and purple lump had “doubled or tripled in size.” After a biopsy was done “just to rule out cancer,” she was told she had stage 3 breast cancer.

Nicole Taylor Turns to Prayer

Nicole Taylor and her doctors were worried about the size of her tumor and the fact that her cancer had spread to her lymph nodes. But instead of focusing on the unknowns of her cancer journey ahead, she leaned into her faith.

“Three days after my diagnosis, my family and friends began to pray for me,” she explained in her YouTube video.

“My aunt started a prayer team at 3:18 every day, and she would get family and friends from her side, tell us to get friends and family from our side, so there were tons of people praying for me at 3:18.”

March 18, 1991, (a.k.a. 3/18) happens to be the day Nicole and her sisters Nika and Natalie were born.

After a follow-up CT scan showed no cancer in her bones or in her organs, Nicole’s belief in the power of prayer has been affirmed.

Aggressive Breast Cancer in Young Women

“I definitely believe God has worked miracles through this because even now some even better news I believe that the tumor’s already gone,” she said. “This is a very fast-shrinking tumor. So, I definitely believe it’s because of the prayers and the fact that God has put me with a great medical team.

“I feel like God has blessed me a lot through this journey, and I got to see him work, so you know I’m just here trying to give people some hope and some positivity.”

In a more recent TikTok video, Nicole was seen ringing a bell at the hospital to mark the completion of six months of chemotherapy.

@taylorred Thank you to my Lord & Savior Jesus for giving me peace through my stage 3 Breast cancer diagnosis. Thank you to my family & friends for your prayers at 3:18 every day for 6 months. Thank you to my doctors & nurses for the amazing care you have given me. I've had incredible results & GREAT news to share soon. Stay tuned!! ðŸ™ #cancer #breastcancer â™¬ original sound – Taylor Red

“Thank you to my Lord & Savior Jesus for giving me peace through my stage 3 Breast cancer diagnosis,” she wrote in the caption of her May 2023 post.

“Thank you to my family & friends for your prayers at 3:18 every day for 6 months. Thank you to my doctors & nurses for the amazing care you have given me. I’ve had incredible results & GREAT news to share soon. Stay tuned!!”

The Power of Prayer

Prayer can be a powerful tool after a cancer diagnosis arrives.

According to a 2015 National Health Interview Survey, 69% of cancer patients reported praying for their health compared to 45% of the general United States population.

Ovarian cancer survivor Monica Layton shares how her church was her biggest support system

And there’s even research that suggests faith plays an important role for patients and their loved ones when deciding on a treatment path.

Researchers for a study published by the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Journal of Clinical Oncology interviewed 100 patients with advanced lung cancer, their caregivers and 257 medical oncologists. They asked the participants to rank how certain factors influenced treatment decisions.

Those factors included the cancer doctor's recommendation, faith in God, the ability of treatment to cure the disease, side effects, a family doctor's recommendation, a spouse's recommendation and their children's recommendation

The results showed that although all groups ranked the oncologist's recommendation as most important, patients and caregivers ranked faith in God second while physicians ranked it last.

Another study even suggests there’s a link between prayer and life expectancy.

Research published in The Journal of Medicine and Life suggests that "religious beliefs and religion belongings can be a real relief and can have an excellent effect on the future of the patients" and there is "a significant relationship between praying and life expectancy."

The researchers say that “patients can overcome their illness through praying, and they can also triumph cancer through self-confidence and control it, by getting more knowledge of their disease and become more hopeful about their future.”

Faith Perspective: Opening Yourself Up to Others After a Cancer Diagnosis

Prayer might not be for everyone, but perhaps it is worth it to try a prayer or two if you are feeling overwhelmed by your cancer journey.

New York City Presbyterian Pastor Tom Evans previously spoke with SurvivorNet about how he recommends coping with the complex feelings you may be having after a cancer diagnosis.

"It's important to reach out in a simple prayer to God, even if you've never prayed before, you don't know what to say, a heartfelt plea, 'God, help me, be with me,'" Evans told SurvivorNet.

"You can reach out to God and you can reach out to people, your friends and family and say, 'I can't do this on my own. I need you,'

"It's in that willingness to be open and to receive that we can actually find something deeper that we never would've encountered without this hardship."

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