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Deltas hold breast cancer seminar

The Delta Iota chapter of Delta Sigma Theta hosted a breast cancer seminar upstairs in the student union last Monday evening. The program highlighted the 25th anniversary of Breast Cancer Awareness week. The program was met with excitement as ladies buzzed outside the door about how long they waited to be admitted and where flyers promoting the event had gone. They were admitted to the room about ten minutes early. It was nearly filled in a matter of moments.

Chapter President, Joia Vallery believes in the importance of knowing one’s status with breast cancer. “Being that it’s a lot of African American women who don’t know how it can affect us . we wanted people to understand the severity of the disease.”

To highlight the disseminated information, the Deltas read poems and stories from people who were affected personally or via a relative by cancer. Chasity Dubose read a poem about a woman whose mother developed breast cancer. It captured the pain of seeing the woman’s loved one die before her eyes.

The importance of self-checking and regular doctor’s appointments was emphasized.

“A lot of people that are young develop it and they may not know,” said Janeya Griffin.

Women were encouraged to take advantage of the facilities at Foster Johnson and get pap smears in addition to breast exams.

Gabrielle Fleming quizzed the audience with breast cancer myths.

This portion was entitled Fact or Fiction. Many ladies were timid, but a few hands shot up triumphantly.

One of the myths that were dismantled included the belief that underwire bras caused the development of cancerous cells. Most of the women who raised a hand, believed bras were a factor in causing cancer.

The Deltas encouraged the audience to share personal stories, if they had any. Kim Monroe told listeners that living with a cancer survivor is “a lifelong process because it’s really emotional what they go through.”

The highlight of the night came from Kelsey Jackson, who brought the room to tears with a story about her mother’s bout with cancer and the affect on her family because of it. Jackson’s told listeners that her mother is a survivor.

Of the event, Jade Williams said, “I truly enjoyed it. It was short and sweet and directly to the point. They kept my full attention the entire time.”

Fleming echoed those sentiments.

“It was informative. I learned a lot and the stories told by the audience members were very touching,” Fleming said.