Cordele residents unite together for 2024 Breast Cancer Awareness Walk
CORDELE, Ga. – Over the weekend, Cordele residents came together for the 2024 Breast Cancer Walk, an event dedicated to supporting individuals affected by cancer.
Angela Wilcox, who has personally faced cancer herself, was joined by other women in the community who are living with or have survived the disease.
“In honor of my 10th year brain surgery, honoring the ones who have survived breast cancer. Every man, girl, boy, whomever, we just encourage you all to make sure that you get your mammogram. Even with guys with prostate cancer. So, we’re not giving a day of any chances anymore to take our lives. We’re taking our lives back,” said Angela Wilcox, cancer survivor & Breast Cancer Walk coordinator.
The walk began at the Crisp County Courthouse and continued to Crisp Regional Medical Hospital.
“This morning when we were passing through town and we seen all these ladies walking and we knew it was something for cancer, we just decided to stop and just join in and just, you know, be a part of their walk,” said Darryell Arnett, cancer survivor.
The event also extended its support to men, who are a part of the population affected by breast cancer.
“I had testicular cancer in 2011 and I went through chemo. Everybody who has went through it knows its very traumatic. Cancers has been very invasive in my family, you know, from my father to my uncle to my grandma and my mother. The power of prayer and the blessing of the doctors and the medicine and nurses, my nurses were just amazing for me. In fact, I took my treatment right here at this hospital. So men need to go and get annual checkups, you know, colonoscopy and check on yourselves because it can happen at any age,” said Arnett.
It also created an opportunity to listen to stories from those whose lives have been affected by cancer.
“Well, at first I was told by a dear friend to go and have my mammogram done. I was 51 years old at that time, so I had never had a mammogram done. So, my primary doctor, she called me in, and she took about 2 hours to let me know the news because she didn’t know how to break it to me. I don’t know no other way to tell you. She said, you got breast cancer. And, I looked at her right then and there and I pleaded the Blood of Jesus. I said, no weapon formed against me shall prosper,” said Casandra Brooks, cancer survivor.
“And, this particular time I thought everything was fine. And, then, they called me back and said everything wasn’t fine. And, so, I went back, I had to have some more test and everything done. That’s when I found out that I had breast cancer. It was a kind of hard road and everything, but I made it through chemo and radiation. It was an experience for me, but I thank god that I made it,” said Cassandra Jackson, cancer survivor.
“I had a double mastectomy. I took chemo. I took radiation with surgery before radiation, and I had to start over taking chemo again because they didn’t get it all. So, right now, I’m currently going through it, and it should end the day before Thanksgiving,” said Sarah Savage Rowe, cancer survivor.
Gatherings such as these aim to unite communities and offer crucial support to those who may need it most.
“Believe in Christ, and just take it one day at a time, and don’t listen to other people because everybody’s journey is different. So, just take it one day at a time and you will survive it. It starts here,” said Rowe.
De’Andra Jacobs reporting.
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