#5kADAY for May

Sunday, May 26, 2019, I was wrapping up a radio shift when I got a call from my God-sister informing me my God-mother, Annie Simons, was in the hospital. By the end of that week, she would be gone. She gained her wings and would no longer suffer from breast cancer cells ravaging her body. I was devastated. She was the one who encouraged so many as a minister and counselor. She was a Civil Rights freedom-fighter, having sat at segregated lunch counters in North Carolina to push integration. She was a part of Black and women's history as the first Black women and second woman U.S. Park Police officer. She was there to pray for me and encourage me after a preteen suicide attempt. She left a hole in me I could only attempt to fill with action like she took throughout her life. This action birthed The SO ALIVE Breast Cancer Project.

Our mission was to help educate, inspire, and empower breast cancer survivors and caregivers through storytelling, and provide resources to patients to support everyday needs. 

Little did I know that by October 2021 I would need the support of the very community I was trying to create. First just a support, I eventually became a caregiver for my sister-friend, Traci Braxton, as she battled esophageal cancer. As if losing so many to this awful disease was not challenging enough, caregiving was life changing. Every moment of Traci's fight, she tough me so much about resilience, perseverance, humility, and love. In addition, I was also supporting others with bladder cancer, thyroid cancer, and prostate cancer. It became necessary to extend the work and continue as the SO ALIVE Cancer Project.

We honor the life, light, and work of all the stories of survivors and caregivers who are or have been in the fight against cancer. In these stories you'll find wisdom, valuable insight, and needed education about questions to ask, potential treatment plans, strategies for maintaining good mental health, and even holistic measures to consider. Sometimes just hearing someone say they went through a challenge and made it out gives others the fuel to fight. Anything to help someone declare, "Even in the midst of this, I am SO ALIVE...and for that I am am grateful.