Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure - Downtown Evansville

Leading up tot he Evansville Race for the Cure, we wanted to give the different teams an opportunity to tell their story and why they walk or run. Join us for the Komen Evansville Tri-State Race for the Cure® on Saturday, September 28, 2013! Register here: http://www.komenevansville.org/komen-race-for-the-cure/

 

Team Bethel Manor - We Walk for Our Team Member

My name is Stacy.  I have been the team captain for Bethel Manor for six years now.  I have been participating in the Race for the Cure for seven years. I would like to share with you the touching story of how our team was brought about.

When I first came to work at Bethel Manor Nursing Home eight years ago, I had several co-workers and residents who were breast cancer survivors.  Our administrator was a survivor, and wanted her staff to “Race for the Cure.”  Thus, our first team was formed.

Over the next year, before the next Race for the Cure, a coworker was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She and her daughter worked here at the time.  They were two of the most caring and compassionate Certified Nursing Assistants I had ever had the pleasure of working with.  Never a moment went by that they didn’t smile for our residents; even after the diagnosis.

She worked as long as she could with some time off to recoup from chemo and radiation.  Again, always smiling for our residents.  This is the time I wanted to step up and do something.  So, I became team captain for Bethel Manor and made sure we did everything we could for those who fought like she did.

Then her cancer came back with a vengeance.  This time she was too sick to continue to work.

That next Race for the Cure, we walked for her.

During the time that followed, she got sicker and sicker.  Her husband could no longer give her the care at home she needed.  She was admitted to our little nursing home, Bethel Manor, as a resident.  Her friends and co-workers that once held her hands as we Raced for a Cure were now washing her hands as caregivers.  We showed her all the love that we show all of our residents, but, with her it was different.  She was one of our gang, dying helplessly from the dreadful “C” word.  We would take our breaks and sit at her side.  We decorated her room, and tried to liven things up.  We even put up the team photos from our previous Races for the Cure.

She fought the good fight.  The cancer took her from us shortly after that.

We walk every Race with her tucked in our hearts.

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