Just a few hours after thousands of Black women breast cancer survivors, supporters and current warriors converged on downtown October 5, 2024 for the 15th annual Sista Strut, a more intimate group filled the rooftop of the Moonrise Hotel to capacity.
They were there to get real about breast cancer’s impact on our community thanks to “Pink in these Streets.” The event was presented by The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis’ Save Our Sisters initiative. SOS Director and veteran media personality Carol Daniel served as mistress of ceremonies.
Speakers included Dr. Lannis Hall, Radiation Oncologist for Siteman Cancer Center, Dr. Jovita Oruwari, breast surgeon and author of “Black Girls in White Coats” and breast cancer warrior Herminia McKinzie. There was also poetry courtesy of The Shirley Bradley Price LeFlore Foundation’s presentation of Poets for Pink hosted by Lyah LeFlore-Ituen. Poets included D’era of Change, Aja La’Starr, Poet Lightning and Jacie Price, daughter of Shirley LeFlore.
“She was a poet and didn’t want nobody to know it,” LeFlore-Ituen joked. “She wrote vigorously during her chemotherapy, radiation and surgery – and she is a [breast cancer] survivor.”
Before and during the poetry portion of the program, leaders in the field shared the reality of what it means to be a Black woman facing breast cancer.
“Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer – especially Black women under the age of 45. And when we are diagnosed, we are 40 percent more likely to die,” Dr. Oruwari told the crowd. “The numbers are grim, but it is not all bad news,” she added. “And the important thing is that we take charge of our health. Because that is how you will be able to overturn some of these disparities and sad numbers.”
Price was one of those women. She stood before them a survivor in remission who can look back on the journey through her writing.
“I told myself, ‘Thank you God for my faith, my family and my friends. I discovered my strength within,” Price read. “I unleashed the fearless woman I’ve been known to be – and yes, breasts and hair don’t define me.”
The event was like a loving family meeting of matriarchs who have decided to face the facts and meet them with a fight.
“If we are able to find your cancer early – stage 0 or stage 1 – your cure rate is almost 100 percent,” Dr. Oruwari said.
Dr. Hall challenged the audience to look within for the strength to battle the disparaging statistics.
“Let’s remember where our DNA comes from,” Hall said. We were brought out of bondage and able to stand back straight as we sat at the lunch counters during sit-ins with racial epithets being hurled at us. And yet we stand here with a disproportionate mortality with a disease that has some of the most amazing advances in the last twenty years of any cancer.”
Hall said that African American women have a 40 percent higher mortality rate across this country. And in St. Louis County, that number is 80 percent. Which is double the national average.
“How could that be? How did we find ourselves here,” Hall said. “Are we consumed by fear? Or do we get our tribe of people together and say, ‘Just like DNA from my collective grandmothers and mothers, I can get through this.’”
Herminia McKinzie is a woman in the midst of her fight.
In a form fitting pink and burgundy tweed dress with a head full of bright pink curls, she appeared to be the pillar of health. She looked as if she was ready to share a testimony of how she got through. Guests found out that the hair was a wig. And that she is actually undergoing treatment for stage four triple negative breast cancer because she ignored the itchy lump that was growing on her breast.
When the lump – which she thought was a cyst – got bigger. She bought pretty bras to distract her from it.
“It got as big as an orange,” McKinzie said. “Then I got another one underneath my arm.”
By the time she went to the doctor the lump was too big for surgery. She was diagnosed nearly three years ago and has a port for chemotherapy that she will have for the rest of her life.
“I hope that if you feel something or you just don’t know, check your body and go to the doctor,” McKinzie said. “I was afraid of what I didn’t know. Now nobody in this room can say they don’t know.”
She told the women in the audience that the ultimate form of self-care is prioritizing health care. A sentiment Dr. Jovita Oruwari stressed earlier during the event.
“We as women are the backbones of our family. We take care of everyone. In doing so, we forget to take care of ourselves,” She said. “But you need to remember that when you, the pillar of your family, breaks down, the whole family breaks down.
In the same way that you get your nails done and get your hair done and you go get a massage – that is all part of taking care of yourself. So is going in for your mammograms, your screenings, your checkups. Make sure you are doing this religiously.”
The post A breast cancer heart to heart appeared first on St. Louis American.
