Patsy grew up in Chatsworth, Durban. In 1960, at the age of 6, she was informed about her family's abrupt relocation to the apartheid created township. Chatsworth was created for the Indian community as a buffer zone between the white and Black communities. When she was a first year university student, in 1976, she remembers the sight of violent protests. She mobilised in various forms of anti-apartheid movements.