The Susan G. Komen MORE THAN PINK Walk returns to Crystal Bridges this Saturday. Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis connected with Komen Development Director Alqueeah Cates to learn more about the event. Cates says this is her second year in the role, but she’s already found inspiration from last year’s walk.
Cates: One of the stories that stuck out with me, and it kind of carried on after the walk, was one of our top teams that raised and uplifted one of our survivors at the event. And the amount of support that the survivor had—I think they had well over 20 people that showed up and showed out for her and raised dollars in support of the event.
I had a chance after the event to meet with her at her workplace, and she was still going through treatment. One of the memorable moments about that, just having the opportunity to kind of connect with her one-on-one, was I’m a believer in prayer—was just being able to pray with her and to be able to connect with her and just apply any needs that she had.
That was probably the most memorable and most impactful part for me—to not just see the display of support that she had, but then also how you can kind of impact a person one-on-one.
Travis: People think of Susan G. Komen, and they often picture big pink ribbons, big pink balloons. It’s a big national organization, right?
Cates: Yes.
Travis: So how do you make sure the Northwest Arkansas families, small-town clinics, those local stories—how do you make sure they don’t get lost in this national message?
Cates: That’s a great question. The way that we make sure these local stories are highlighted is during our pre-ceremony. I actually have three stories that will be presented to the audience before our formal program starts. These will be two individuals that have passed away from the disease and one in honor of a supporter. To keep it localized and keep it fresh and in line with what’s happening locally, that’s one of the ways we try to make sure at the walk we recognize that.
Travis: I wanted to talk about people who are dealing with breast cancer or maybe have survived breast cancer. That word “survivor” carries a lot of power, but it can also be a little bit complicated. How are you seeing conversations evolve around that word and what it means to be a cancer survivor or to be dealing with cancer and breast cancer today?
Cates: I think one of the ways that I have really seen it evolve is that you have some local organizations that have support groups. Because again, it is complicated because yes, you survive, but you may also still be going through some issues from some of the therapies that have caused complications or just some things that you’re still going through as a survivor.
What that means is just connecting other survivors with other survivors because they can actually help each other in many ways. For example, I met two ladies on two different occasions, learned about some of the drugs they were taking and some of the complications they were having after the fact. Just me connecting with each individual, I was able to bring them together. And now they can kind of, you know—“This is what I’m dealing with, have you experienced this?”
So what it means to be a survivor is that you don’t have to do it alone. Even though you’ve gone through this, there are resources available to you and other survivors you can connect with to help you on your journey.
Travis: If someone asks, “Where does my donation actually go?” what do you tell them that helps them understand the impact that they’re making?
Katz: The impact when someone gives a donation is that they are donating toward research, they’re donating toward what we call some of our patient care centers, and then they’re also donating to our advocacy. So we have these three areas where it’s really important that we have the research that’s available so that we can find a cure for breast cancer.
For example, over the past 30 years, 29 of the new breast cancer–fighting drugs were made possible in part due to Komen’s research funding. A lot of that doesn’t happen if we don’t have the support of those that are donating. Also, advocating to our public officials, to the government, and then just locally—we need that support in order for us to get to fighting to finding a cure.
Travis: If you could change one misconception about the Susan G. Komen Foundation or breast cancer awareness, what would it be?
Cates: I think one misconception is that breast cancer impacts anyone. It doesn’t have a face. I’m not going to say so much misconception from a Komen perspective, but I think the misconception would be that many people don’t realize how many people are impacted by the disease.
And that it is a nonpartisan issue because if you look at numbers, there’s about 319,750 people in the United States that will be diagnosed, and nearly 43,000 of those will die from breast cancer. With this being a nonpartisan issue, every congressional district, regardless of party, has constituents that are impacted.
I think the misconception is that there’s a face to it, and there’s not a face to it. Iif we were able to get the support—experts are saying about one-third of those deaths I just mentioned could be prevented if everyone had timely and high-quality care. So I think that’s the misconception—that it only impacts certain people, and actually it does not. It impacts all faces.
Travis: For someone who’s never attended the More Than Pink Walk or any Susan G. Komen event, what do you hope they feel when they leave this year’s event?
Cates: After attending this event, I hope that people will take back the importance of what it means to help someone that is going through something. Many people, like I just mentioned, those numbers of how many people can be diagnosed—it could be your sister, it could be your brother, it could be someone that is in your circle.
You leave there with information that we’ll provide during the ceremony about the survivors and those that have been impacted by the disease. And them leaving there, “How can I help and be involved more?” Whether that is being a donor or being a volunteer, my hope is that people walk away wanting to do more for someone else, because it could be one of their loved ones that may be impacted by this disease.
Travis: Thank you. And where can people go for more information and to sign up for the walk and to raise funds?
Cates: Yes. They can visit our website at komen.org/nwawalk. They can go there and donate, sign up to volunteer, and register for a team or as an individual. Registration is free. We just ask that you come on out.
We hope that you have a heart to donate, self-donate, or donate as a team, and come out and have a great time with us—but most importantly, come out and celebrate our survivors and thrivers.
I hope that this year we can get this walk to grow even more. We are going to be at Crystal Bridges—this is our second year there—and last year was such a success. We’re just looking forward to a bigger and better event and being able to raise funds to support the initiatives that Komen has to bring more support to those going through this disease.
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