The 23rd annual West End Pink Light Walk for Breast Cancer Awareness stepped off Tuesday evening at the American Legion Post 927, Gilbert.

After a warm up, the walk was led by West End Fair Queen Falon Schaefer and Emory Tworkowsky holding the Pink Light Walk banner. Schaefer said she participated in the walk because she knows people whose family members have battled breast cancer.

“We have to support each other and the families going through it,” she said.

The state police based in Lehighton closed the road heading down to the West End Fairgrounds, and the group of a couple hundred women and men left the parking lot at the Legion at 6:30 p.m. Many people wore pink — lots of sweatshirts, but even a feather boa, tutu, and cowboy hat were among the mix.

The theme of the walk was “She Doesn’t Walk Alone” and encouraged more men to come out for the annual event. The poster encouraged people to show those fighting cancer that they are not alone and brighten their days with hope.

Mariann Ferro, who is a founding member of the walk in West End, said she got involved because her two sisters were diagnosed with breast cancer.

“It’s for awareness. We want to get the word out there for people to get their mammograms and keep up on their self-exams. That’s why we do it,” she said.

Pink Heals

Marilyn and Bill Andress, founders of the Pink Heals Lehigh Valley Chapter in 2013, were inspired to get involved in cancer awareness when a friend was diagnosed with a rare eye cancer.

“We wanted to find a way to help support her,” Marilyn Andress said.

Bill learned about Pink Heals in a magazine he got as a firefighter. They liked the idea, raised funds for them, and eventually decided to open their own chapter. Their first fire truck was a 1962 Ford they named Sally after their friend with the eye cancer. Students at the Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School painted it pink for them.

Now they have an ambulance, fire truck, motorcycle, and police car — all pink. The ambulance is named Mae after a volunteer’s mother who had cancer twice but lived to 98 years old. They also have a newer fire truck named Diane and motorcycle named Mom, which came to them with those names, and a police cruiser named Deb after one of their volunteers who is a cancer survivor and battling it again now.

Marilyn Andress said everything is pink, but they also aim to bring awareness to all cancers and serious illnesses that affect men and women.

“I always say the pink stands for love. Pink heals; love heals,” she said.

The organization is 100% volunteer, Marilyn Andress said. No one gets paid for their work. They go out to community events, do home visit parades, and sell T-shirts, sweatshirts and a few other items to help cover the cost of vehicle maintenance, gasoline and insurance. They did 15 events just in October, Bill Andress said.

They also raise money through basket raffle events with all of the money going to cancer patients in the Lehigh Valley and surrounding areas. So far they have raised more than $125,000. Their next basket raffle is Nov. 6 and 7 at Nancy Run Fire Company in Bethlehem.

One of Pink Heals’ biggest fans is breast cancer survivor JeanAnn Uvino. She had breast cancer 13 years ago and is in remission, but she has lost friends from cancer and knew a man who died from breast cancer.

Uvino said that when she was sick, she didn’t know of organizations like Pink Heals. A single woman, she struggled to work and pay her bills while fighting the cancer.

“I used every penny I ever saved in my life,” she said. “This is a good cause. It’s very much needed.”

Offering support

Marilyn Andress said that people have used the money they have given them to pay their bills, buy Christmas gifts for their children, or buy groceries, gasoline or other necessities.

Pink Heals also bought a mobility scooter for a woman whose insurance wouldn’t cover it.

“Those are the things that give me goose bumps,” Marilyn Andress said. “The idea of not being able to watch your son play baseball because you can’t get a scooter that you need to go across the field. And to know that we had a hand in that, those moments are what keep us coming back.”

“You never have to look very hard or very far to find somebody whose life has been ripped to shreds by cancer or some other illness,” Bill Andress said.

After the Pink Light Walk, Kathie Maltez, the lead organizer this year, thanked everyone for coming and thanked all those who helped make the event possible.

“We’re just 10 women in town who try to throw something like this together,” she said.

Maltez thanked all the organizations and businesses who made the night possible, highlighting Mount Airy Casino for its donation of $5,000 that will go to the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Association. The association provides gifts to people who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, gives money for cancer research, and works on legislation to get treatments covered by insurance.

Pa. Breast Cancer Awareness Association representative Honi Gruenberg said research has made it possible for there to be 12 new drugs in the last 10 years to fight breast cancer. For the 10 years prior to that, there were only four new medications.

She also spotlighted the number of cancer survivors participating in the walk that night and the number of years they have been a survivor. The group ranged from a year to more than 30 years.

“Obviously if we have people who are surviving anywhere from a day to 30 years plus, we’re making progress,” Gruenberg said. “This is for all of you.”