Lexington, KY - "Not one human being on Earth is not touched by cancer," said Corky Robertson, a board member for the Lexington Cancer Foundation and member of various committees for the group. "I thank God that only one person in my family had cancer."
Fellow board and committee member, Lori Kirk-Wagner has had her own experiences with the disease that takes so many forms. "My mother had breast cancer, and later passed," she said. "My father dealt with cancer of many kinds over the years and is still going. So many of my friends have had cancer. Even a friend's daughter."
"I'd been a fundraiser for 10 years when my husband was diagnosed with cancer," said board president and the founder of the Lexington Cancer Foundation, Brenda Rice. "Everything was so fast and there was so much to deal with, but my husband and a few friends said, 'You should start a foundation.' So I did. I didn't know what I was doing, but I called my girlfriends and we pulled the executive board from a group sitting around my dining room table. It was definitely a grass roots organization."
That little grassroots organization, started in 2004, has proven to be a powerful cancer fundraising force in Lexington and the state. The group has already raised $3 million and a good majority of it is distributed to fund events, host educational seminars for the public and medical community, as well as brick and mortar projects like the Hope Lodge, which hosts patients during cancer treatment free of charge.
Though the organization is primarily made up of women of all ages, there is a men's committee as well. Many opportunities exist to get involved in the group and it's a great way to benefit many areas affected by cancer. Lexington Cancer Foundation does not serve only one kind of cancer or focus on only one population - it's as broad and diverse as the kinds of cancer and the people touched by the disease.
"We all know we really make a difference," Robertson said. "We've come a long way, baby. There's going to be a cure someday."