Event celebrates survivors and focuses on reducing the risk of cancer

For the first time in more than a decade, a group of Jefferson County cancer survivors lined up and walked a lap surrounded by the thundering applause of a community that honors and supports them.

The April 28 event was organized by Reduce Your Risk, a non-profit organization based out of Augusta, created by three friends whose lives have been altered by their personal experiences with breast cancer. The purpose of the event, said Lisa Ann Wheeler, co-founder of Reduce Your Risk LLC and a patient navigator for the Department of Public Health’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program, was to celebrate survivors and remember those lost to cancer.

Wheeler started Reduce Your Risk with cancer survivors Carolyn Byrd and Angela Prince and have been holding events across the Augusta area designed to support those currently fighting this disease and promoting the many ways people can reduce their risks of getting cancer or having a recurrence.

“The event far surpassed by expectations,” Wheeler said. “The reactions we’ve received, the phone calls, they’ve all been awesome. And when the survivors lap started, I couldn’t contain my tears. I hadn’t realized so many survivors were there. There were so many people milling about who then joined in...and the woman in the wheelchair with her husband pushing her, oh my goodness.”

The event, held at Helen Clark Memorial Park in Louisville from 5 p.m to 9 p.m., began with a survivor’s dinner, followed by the lap and featured speakers and resources providing information on services to help overcome barriers to women’s health, support cancer survivors and campaigns that promote early detection.

Several local cancer survivors gave their testimonies, talked about their diagnoses, treatments and recoveries.

“I am so grateful,” said Catina Clark. “God is really good.”

Clark said she was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer in 2021 after her original screening was postponed because of a Covid test.

“If I had gotten my mammogram on the original date, they probably wouldn’t have seen anything and it would have been a whole year before I had gotten my next mammogram and my story could be totally different than it is now,” she said. “I am so grateful for the blessing and that I had the support that I did. Make sure you keep up with your annual screenings. Early detection saves lives. I am proof of that.”

Clark said that she had been a part of the former American Cancer Society Relay events that were held in the county a decade ago, but only as a supporter as that was before her own diagnosis. She said that she was pleased to see the Reduce Your Risk group creating their own event for local survivors.

“It was so nice to see people come together, to see the strength in everyone who is going through their own personal battles,” Clark said. “For the survivors to have the strength to come out and for them to be recognized by the community and how important their journeys are, it was just amazing.”

Annie Lewis Dixon, 84, of Louisville, said that she was diagnosed this year and currently going through treatments. She took the survivor’s lap in a wheelchair decked out in pink.

“I am blessed to be here,” Dixon said. “I don’t get to go too many places. I’m with my church family from Canaan Galilee Baptist Church.”

Tamicka Butts was diagnosed in 2020 with stage two breast cancer and the day of the event in Louisville made two years since her surgery and becoming cancer free.

Butts had also been a part of the previous county relay events as a part of a family team created in honor of her uncle who had passed away with cancer.

“Today, being able to walk that survivors’ lap, being done with treatment, with a cancer free diagnosis, it meant a lot,” Butts said.

Wheeler said she and the other founders of Reduce Your Risk were tickled with the turnout and said the event just marks the beginning of what they hope to do in Jefferson County.

Wheeler's DPH position helps women who are uninsured, under-insured and of low income by providing annual exams, mammograms, pap and HPV screenings completely free of charge. She is also the lead advocate with the National Breast Cancer Coalition for South Carolina and volunteers to work with legislators on projects like the Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act.

She said that any money raised at the Jefferson County event will be kept local to help support those battling this disease in this area.

"We see a vision of support groups assisting patients who are diagnosed with cancer,” Wheeler said “Some people have to go out of the county when they have to get specialized care. We want to be able to help make arrangements for transportation and child care. We have gone with individuals to appointments. We want to assist with not just treatments but screenings as well.”

The group also sees a need for caregiver support and want to be a resource where family members as well as cancer patients themselves can turn to ask the questions they may have trouble voicing to the doctors and other medical providers.

To find out more about Reduce Your Risk many events and services you can call 706-842-8807 or email reduceyourriskinc@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Event celebrates survivors and focuses on reducing the risk of cancer