By Reginald Williams
Special to the AFRO
rwilliams@afro.com
Scores of supporters filed into WedMake Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina to participate in the 16th Annual Strike Out for Sarcoma 5K & 10K Run/Walk on Sept. 8.
In support of Lt. Jeff Kology, of the Burlington Police Department, the agency detailed the SUV in yellow in support of the victims of sarcoma. (Photo courtesy of Reginald Williams)
Unlike the more recognized breast, prostate and lung cancer, sarcoma is a rare cancer—one more challenging to treat.
“Sarcoma is a very rare kind of cancer that can occur in children, young adults and older people,” said Dr. Nicole Larrier, radiation oncologist at Duke Sarcoma Center. “It often starts in the muscle, bone, or fat.”
According to Larrier, sarcoma can grow anywhere in the body, from the brain to the tip of the toe.
“It’s not like breast cancer where you’re treating one area. sarcoma in the toe is different than treating someone who has sarcoma of the lung,” said Larrier. “The other thing is that it’s tough because it is so rare. There are not a lot of patients that we can study to make advancements as we can in more common forms of cancers.”
Larrier and other dedicated medical professionals from Duke’s sarcoma team volunteered at the annual fundraising event. The goal was to raise sarcoma awareness and $30,000 to transform cancer care and seek a cure through innovative research. The walk raised $74,560.
The morning began with a survivor’s walk.
Patricia McCarter’s cousin, Kebra McDaniel, walked with her to demonstrate her support.
“I just wanted to walk with her to let her know I’m here to support her in whatever she needs on the journey she’s taken with sarcoma,” McDaniel said.
Having spent 15 years battling sarcoma, Wanda Farrell represented the longest survivor in attendance. The event concluded with Jordan, her daughter, being awarded the first place medal for winning the 10K race.
“I ran because my mom is a 15-year leiomyosarcoma warrior—still fighting…still being treated at Duke Cancer Center,” explained Jordan Farrell. “Being able to support her on her journey means so much to me. I’m not mentally and physically going through exactly what she’s going through but able to be by her side and still push and fight every day with her.”
Jordan Farrell also served as the team captain for Wanda’s Warriors, a sarcoma support group named after her mother. The unity and support within this group were palpable, as they raised $4,215, demonstrating the power of community in the fight against sarcoma.
Jeffrey Kology’s team designed a challenge coin that raised $3,200 for research. Kology, a lieutenant in the Burlington, N.C. police department, also has leiomyosarcoma. Diagnosed in February 2022, the cancer began in his abdomen and metastasized to his left lung.
The five-year survival rate for soft tissue sarcoma drops from 65 percent to about 18 percent for patients whose cancer has spread, so Kology’s and Wanda Farrell’s fight has defied the statistics. However, the journey hasn’t been easy for either.
“It’s been tough. I was diagnosed in May 2009,” explained Farrell. “By that time, I was symptomatic. It had already spread to my lung. By the time they scanned me again, I had a tumor in the other lung. I had lung surgery in December 2009 and another in February 2010.” Farrell endured many subsequent surgeries.
The journey also has been challenging for Kology.
“This is life-changing,” Kology said. “All the plans you make for the future and retirement, the plans with my wife and my kids, cancer kind of puts all that on a shelf. You just don’t know. It makes the future so uncertain. When I got my diagnosis, I was a full-time police officer at the Burlington Police Department. But it was a very humbling thing. It was hard to go from a position of I’m supposed to be the one helping everybody and then have to turn around and accept help from others. That’s hard because it’s not my nature.”
McCarter, diagnosed in August 2023, attended her first Strike Out For Sarcoma walk event. A resident of Wendell, N.C., a small suburb 20 miles north of Raleigh, she sported yellow ribbons (it represents sarcoma cancer) in her hair, a yellow bracelet on her wrist and a yellow pin affixed to her white dress as she delivered hugs and shed tears with recently diagnosed patients, and shared her story of survival. Rather than calling her sarcoma “cancer” she renamed it “mango.”
“I am a sarcoma survivor,” said McCarter. “I had a tumor the size of a mango on my left leg. August made a year.”
According to Larrier, sarcoma does not discriminate in who it attacks.
“We do know people who have had radiation for something else… can be at higher risk. But for the vast majority of people that we see now, there is no known cause. It affects young, old, Black, White, men, and women—no predilection one way or the other.”
The American Association for Cancer Research recognizes July as Sarcoma Month to raise awareness about the enigmatic disease.
Because it is rare and difficult to diagnose, sarcoma is known as the “forgotten cancer.” Research says sarcoma accounts for approximately 1 percent of adults with cancer.
“We need to make some of the advances in how to treat , in terms of the research that has been done in other areas. You hear about immunotherapy in lung cancer and melanoma. We’re still looking for that thing in sarcoma,” Larrier said.
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