The Lady Lion Basketball Team will take the court in their pinks this weekend for the Play for Kay Pink Zone to raise awareness and funding for the fight against breast cancer. The Pink Zone has raised more than a million dollars for the effort since 2007.
Patients from J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital, Mt. Nittany Medical Center, and Geisinger Lewistown Hospital are among those who’ve benefited. Some of them will be among the survivors who’ll also take the court for a short time on Sunday.
“I was 39. I had found the lump myself,” said Katie Anderson-Wheeler. She’ll be one of the survivors cheering on the Lady Lions. Before her diagnosis, she helped start a Pink Zone fundraiser with a high school volleyball that she coached. Now, she’s coming up on her fifth year of recovery from stage 3 breast cancer.
She said, “It’s been a journey, but everything happens for a reason. You move on from it.”
One thing that helps Katie move on is her special circle of friends, fellow members of the Young Survival Coalition (YSC) of Centre County.
Local YSC founder Heather Sanford said, “It’s a great organization because they really focus on things that younger women are concerned with like fertility , like intimacy…”
And in Heather’s case, reconstructive surgery, She’s undergone seven reconstructive procedures since a unilateral mastectomy.
Heather founded the Center County Chapter of the YSC after being diagnosed with stage two breast cancer at 38.
“It’s something that I’ll never be able to get away from. I always have to worry about a recurrence,” she said.
Just like Katie, Heather, and Keri Wallace, found their own breast cancers after noticing a lump. None of the women have any of the known breast cancer genes. They very strongly recommend self-exams,
“Follow your gut always, and never forget to ask for a second opinion,” urged Keri.
And Katie added, “It’s really just knowing your own body and knowing it can happen at any time, “
The Young Survival Group is for women diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 40.
The Pink Zone event, which gets underway at 2 p.m. Sunday, February 26 is for everyone.
