Chester Athletics Breast Cancer Awareness Dinner Dance

Organizers Jay Francis, Zakiyyah Pickett-Spence, and Fred Pickett

Last night I attended the Breast Cancer Awareness Dinner Dance at the Philadelphia Renaissance Hotel in Essington. The dinner dance topped off what ended up being a very busy day in blogging. October is breast cancer awareness month. While breast cancer awareness is being national promoted, Chester Athletics brought the awareness on a local level. As Zakiyyah Pickett-Spence, one the organizers, so eloquently said, the Chester Athletics wanted to bring awareness of this disease to the local community by having the dinner dance. But breast cancer awareness is much more than that for the Pickett family who has been deeply affected by the loss of a loved one by this disease. Ms. Pickett-Spence shared how she lost her mother to breast cancer eleven years ago. She has been deeply involved in the movement about spreading breast cancer awareness. Last week, the organizers were at the Chester High School Clippers Football game to help promote breast cancer awareness. The Saturday, October 8 game was dedicated to breast cancer awareness. In May, Ms. Pickett-Spence with her family also took part in the Susan G. Komen Foundation Cure for cancer walk.

According to the American Cancer Society's most recent estimates for breast cancer in the United States for 2011, about 230,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women is found and about 57,650 new cases will be found non-invasive and is in the earliest form of breast cancer, and about 39,520 deaths from breast cancer occurs in women. So it is important for women to get a mammogram and do breast self-examinations for prevention. 

The organizers thanked everyone for coming out to the dinner dance to share in breast cancer awareness. I sat at the table with political dignitaries John Linder and his wife, and Elizabeth Williams who were running for local elected office in Chester. The dinner dance was a great way to promote the breast cancer awareness cause. The organizers are looking forward to more community involvement next year.