Record Cancer Walk Crowd Donates Big
Tara A. Spears
Nayarit Editor ….Story Tip? Email Tara @ jaltemba.scribe47@ymail.com
Even though it was the hottest day of the year with full tropical sun the enthusiastic supporters of the annual Jaltemba Walk against Cancer marched and partied for the cause! 700 lucky individuals purchased admission bracelets prior to the sold out event that had standing room only. The sweat poured off the dancers, but hey, another beer and they were ready to go again. The money might have been soggy, but more than $111,600 pesos were donated for Patty’s haircut. It was also the largest 50/50 raffle with the winner receiving a whopping $8,140 pesos! The 2018 event final count is $244,290 which will go a long way providing free mammogram, ultrasound and cervical testing for low income Mexican women. These early detection measures are a step towards a healthier community.
The Cancer Walk event is the sole source of income for this service. Accolades go to Dorothy Bell for the original idea; Dr. Lidiana Flores for donating hundreds of professional hours to assist the women with the proper medical treatment; Hinde and Patty Hueso for financially sponsoring this initiative for eight years; Tecate distributors for their continued donations; Adan for keeping the party happy; the many volunteers that set up and serve at the event; the wonderful donations for the silent auction; and most importantly, all of you that join together to celebrate life.
The way the program operates is that the area medical offices- from San Pancho to Las Varas- are given contact information and our liaison makes the appointment for the indicated test. Our women are given a ride to and from the laboratory plus a complementary lunch while she waits for a cancer specialist to do the analysis of the test. Should the mammogram indicate a problem, the patient is immediately given an additional ultrasound evaluation that day. Pending that result, Dr. Lidiana arranges a biopsy and further treatment. Each year the Cancer Walk program has detected several pre-cancer or cancerous conditions for women who did not have negative symptoms and that she was unaware of the problem. Thankfully, this early diagnosis and prompt medical attention makes it easier to treat.
The Cancer Walk committee originally began by wanting to address the rampant breast cancer that occurs in Nayarit after seeing the hundreds of women that attend our sister group, Cancer de Mama Clinic; we know that for each breast cancer survivor all of her female relatives are high risk and should have regular screening. This wasn’t easily available through the Mexican health services so our grass root group of volunteers set out to raise money to provide what the system did not provide. In addition, just by advertising the Cancer Walk has had an ancillary role in educating the public concerning early detection. After a few years we expanded our initiative to include all types of female cancer.
This year’s very exciting live auction for cutting Patty’s hair certainly will go down in La Penita history. When Patty said, “I’ll cut one centimeter for every 1,000 pesos” of course it was motivating for all to pool funds to get a buzz cut! Patty handled it with pizzazz and grace. The auctioneers fired up the crowd while the guys with the hats collected donations.
Another milestone was the auctioning of the butterfly bra made by Donnett Hodges who succumbed to cancer shortly before the event. Her friends gave a short tribute, and this one item raised $9,180. Thank you, Donnett and family.
Our wild, sweaty, fun street party will have a major impact all year long. We hope to see you next year, Monday, February 11, 2019. We’ll have more chairs! More shade! More kind hearts dressed in pink and celebrating life- thank you all!
