Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Focused on a Cure: Sisters in Partnership Meeting

Today Karen and I attended the Sisters in Partnership meeting at Cabarrus Health Alliance! For those of you who are unaware of what Cabarrus Health Alliance does, they are an organization that provides health care to those who cannot afford the type of health care necessary for their particular illness.

Sisters in Partnership is an African American organization that promotes Breast Cancer awareness as well as provides a group for ladies to attend, talk about their illness and give support to one another.

As a personal testimony, I can say from the bottom of my heart that these ladies touched me today. They made me want to work harder for Focused on a Cure to beat this illness that they have over come. Each survivor went around and gave personal testimonies and I wanted to share a few of those testimonies with you.


 I am Bertha Williams. I am 96 years old, praise the Lord above. I am a multiple cancer survivor. I have had both breast and kidney cancer as well as I now live with a rare form of blood cancer. When I went in and was told that I had breast cancer, I told the doctors that I did not want to go any further, I was ready to go home to my Lord. However God was not done with me. Doctors gave me three months to live and here it is 8 years later!! I prayed for strength which he gave to me. Everyone else prayed for my healing so he answered their prayers as well.

I am Mrs. Pearl Asbury. My daughter went with me to my oncology appointment when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I told the doctor then that I had a great granddaughter due that week and that I was refusing to go along with his plan because I wanted to feel good when I was there with the great grand baby. The baby was born and it was a joyful occasion. I went back to the oncologist after getting back from my trip to start his treatment. They ran all of their traditional test and found that I no longer had cancer. That was 6 years ago, and I have been cancer free ever since. Praise the Lord!!


Another lady spreads awareness by purchasing Avon Breast Cancer bracelets and giving them to people that she meets. She meet a lady at the bank who had on wrap. She went over to talk with her and tell her how beautiful she was. The lady said " Thank you I forgot my wig in the car", girl you look beautiful without it and gave her a bracelet.


There were 10 survivors in attendance at this meeting and each story was more touching than the last. These two stories that I shared were the two that stuck out the most. The only common theme of all of their stories was that they were thankful to God for leading them through. They knew that this diagnoses was just a stepping stone in their life that God had handed them to lead them to another journey. All of these ladies were meant to do great things and they have.

Cabarrus Health Alliance received a large grant this year from Focused on a Cure 501(c)(3) and this is why. They provide services to people like Mrs. Pearl and Mrs. Bertha. These ladies are what provide us with  stories of healing and inspiration.

I hope each of you receive as much of a blessing from these stories as Karen and I did today!!!


For more information on Cabarrus Health Alliance and Sisters in Partnership please visit their website at: http://www.cabarrushealth.org/

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