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South Carolina’s Lexington Medical Center (LMC) is hosting a celebration of breast cancer survivors and their families this coming week as America prepares to kick off Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The hospital’s 2023 “Women’s Night Out” event – which raises money for breast cancer patients – is scheduled for this coming Tuesday (October 3, 2023) at the University of South Carolina alumni center in downtown Columbia, S.C.
According to the official event page, a cocktail reception is scheduled to commence at 5:30 p.m. EDT with the main program set to start at 6:30 p.m. EDT. The event will feature “dinner, raffle drawings for terrific prizes, a fashion show with breast cancer survivors and a panel of clinicians, caregivers and survivors talking about the best ways to treat breast cancer and help a loved one with the disease.”
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in the world – accounting for approximately 12.5 percent of all cases (and 30 percent of cases involving women). Nearly one in eight women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives.
This year alone, an estimated 297,790 women (and 2,800 men) will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NCBF).
Thankfully, death rates related to breast cancer declined by approximately 40 percent between 1989 and 2016, according to the American Cancer Society. That’s attributable to advances in early detection and treatment, but also to events like this are one which are raising awareness – and raising funds to support patients.
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All proceeds from next week’s gathering will go to benefit the Crystal Smith Breast Cancer Fund at the Lexington Medical Center Foundation. Crystal Smith was an employee at the hospital who died from breast cancer in 2003 at the age of 34.
The fund established in her honor “provides breast cancer patients with essential items and services such as post-surgical kits and supplies for mastectomy patients, wigs, screening mammograms and critical emergency assistance for basic needs.”
The event will feature a special tribute to Barbara Willm, former vice president of community and development at Lexington Medical Center. Willm was one of the hospital system’s foremost advocates for screenings and helping women who are medically underserved or uninsured. She died of cancer last year, but was posthumously honored by the United Way of the Midlands with group’s “Humanitarian of the Year” award back in February.
“Barbara dedicated her life to serving others,” United Way of the Midlands chief executive officer Sara Fawcett said.
Tickets for Tuesday’s event are only $60. They can be purchased individually or as a table. For more information, please visit LexMed.com/WNO.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven (soon to be eight) children.
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