Cures for Colors banquet held Friday
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on April 3, 2016 1:45 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Cancer survivors and their caretakers listen to The Southern Ambassadors during the entertainment portion of the Cures for the Colors survivors banquet Friday night.
More than 500 people of various ages and backgrounds packed into the First Pentecostal Holiness Church on Friday night, all with one thing in common -- survivorship.
Each with a story to tell about living through cancer, some still battling the disease.
It marked the third annual Cures for the Colors Survivor banquet, but the effort has been going on much longer, said Dr. Samer Kasbari of Southeastern Cancer Care.
The non-profit formed several years ago, spearheaded by physicians and staff at Southeastern Medical Oncology Center, in an effort to raise money for cancer patients in eastern North Carolina. The charity designates money to help patients east of I-95 with such daily needs as gas and groceries, utilities and rent.
Seeing the capacity crowd before him, Dr. Kasbari paid tribute to those who have been in the trenches and become more than patients, but in many cases, friends.
"You have entrusted us, the physicians and staff, with the most valuable things that you have -- your health and your life," he said. "I want to thank you for trusting us, for getting on clinical trials and for being the fierce fighters you are.
"It's an honor for all of us to be serving you on your journey and actually with your meals tonight."
Staff from SMOC, an estimated 50 volunteers, served chicken dinners prepared by the First PH cooking team, and handed out numerous door prizes donated by area businesses for the occasion.
Dr. James Atkins explained the significance of Cures for the Colors, which represents every cancer out there.
"We didn't want to cure just one cancer. We want all cancers cured," he said. "It's not just research that's important. Sometimes it can be the difference of a gas card."
Southeastern Cancer Care was formed six years ago, he explained. That first year, it generated $30,000 in donations through its family night and a walk/run.
"In 2015, the event that we had, the one that's coming up the end of this month, actually raised $95,000, which is amazing," he said. "But actually the SCC raised $283,128 last year for cancer patients.
"As of Dec. 31, $255,593 had been dispersed, so a lot of money has gone to help people who are battling these issues."
Dr. Atkins estimated that 75 percent of the money raised has either gone toward gas cards or food cards, demonstrating where the needs are for patients.
"How do they get to the doctor's office? How do they get to work? How do they put food on the table if they've gone from two paychecks to one or from one to zero?" he asked.
Providing for such essentials is the impetus behind the annual Cures for the Colors event, he said, which is coming up the weekend of April 23 and 24 on the Wayne Community College campus. It kicks off that Friday evening at 5 p.m. with family activities and food vendors. The opening ceremony starts at 7, with a childhood balloon release and lantern release. Saturday morning features a walk/run event.
The bottom line, though, is all about supporting cancer patients, he said.
"Not one penny goes to pay anybody's salary," he said. "All the money that's raised goes to help patients. Everything is done by volunteers. There's no paid employees."
Anyone questioning where the money is going need look no further than the slight, soft-spoken young woman on the stage.
Kasey Swartz, one of the evening's two keynote speakers, stepped from behind the podium to illustrate that point. She is just one example, she says, but is willing to use her story as a reminder.
She was diagnosed at age 24 with stage 3 breast cancer, just two days before she and her Air Force husband, Alec, were set to move to North Carolina with their 15-month-old baby, Cambria.
At one point told she would not live to be 30, in three weeks she turns 29 and says she has every intention of exceeding those early expectations.
Moving to Goldsboro produced many gifts, she said, not the least of which was the stellar staff at SMOC.
"SMOC is a place of comfort during the fight of fear and fear does not ever go away but you can be surrounded by people who are rooting for you, who are crying for you, who are living with you," she said. "They're just a great group of people and I couldn't be more blessed.
"They have encouraged me and kept me going, even when I looked them in the eye and told them, 'I'm done.'"
While she is a survivor, she is also still in the fight.
"This is my fifth fight and right now I'm fighting (cancer) in the lungs and in my liver," she said. "It's been a lot worse but it will get better.
"I have been called a fighter, a warrior, a survivor, but never will I be a victim. I will fight until my body gives out and then I will go to heaven with my trophy, knowing that I'm done with my plan on earth but I didn't lose the battle."
She said she was the beneficiary of the Southeastern Cancer Care mission -- receiving gas cards for her frequent treks to UNC hospital for treatments, the occasional grocery cards.
Carol Barber, the evening's other keynote speaker, has also experienced cancer firsthand, both as a caregiver who lost both parents to the disease, then her own breast cancer, diagnosed almost three months after her mother passed.
"My world for a moment just collapsed," she said. And it didn't end there. Three months after that, her brother learned he had head and neck cancer.
He lost his job and was living on his wife's income, so receiving gas cards and grocery cards "helped them tremendously," she said.
"He was sick. A lot of bills accumulated," she said. "They had to ask for assistance and that has helped tremendously.
"I just cannot say enough about Cures for the Colors."