Hospital hosts breast cancer balloon release
Pictured are ladies of the community releasing balloons at L.V. Stabler Hospital in honor of those they have known with cancer. (Bruce Branum | The Standard)
BY Bruce Branum
The Greenville Standard
Bettye Daniels speaks to attendees of L.V. Stabler’s Healthy Woman’s brunch and balloon release. (Bruce Branum | The Standard)
Bettye Daniels recently spoke to attendees of L.V. Stabler Memorial Hospital’s annual brunch and balloon release this past Friday morning.
Daniels, who is a one year cancer survivor herself and grew up in the Forest Home community, expressed her own story, the trials and emotional states that she went through on her journey.
“Nobody talked about cancer in my little community,” said Daniels and she continued, “My niece lost her battle with cancer. My dad lost his battle as well but I had just never heard the word cancer before.”
She found out that cancer does not discriminate. It has no social class, or cares where you live or what kind of job you have.
“June the 1st, 2016, cancer came into my house and I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Thank God for mammograms,” stated Daniels. She urged the audience to take their mammograms for they do work.
After a biopsy she was notified that she had cancer. It was a long day as she waited on the phone call and then she just couldn’t believe it. She was shocked because she didn’t feel sick.
She had a job, was a wife, mother and grandmother. She said to herself, “What do we do now? So, I started crying again. I cried so much last year that I didn’t think I had anymore to cry this year. I was so scared.”
She continued by recounting three things that stood out for her over the last year. The first was a CAT scan where she was scared to death. Being claustrophobic didn’t help, as neither did the two bottles of water she had consumed.
The second standout was on Oct. 19, 2016 and she was a chemotherapy grad. Her tears flowed again. She was still scared though, even with being a new survivor.
The third memorable event was hoping and praying. She was taking her 4th or 5th treatment and when she came out she met a young lady she knew who was at the cancer center to have her first treatment and was scared.
Daniels said her to her, “Clear your mind, everybody’s situation is different.” After relaying her own experiences to the young lady she was able to calm down and expressed her appreciation to Daniels.
From there Daniels thought to herself that she should put her experiences in writing and came up with the idea for her book “Pink Rain, Calm in the Storm.” It would be her way of helping others.
On Dec. 9, 2016, Daniels became a survivor.
After Daniels spoke, the attendees were presented with pink balloons to which they attached a name card of a person in memory or honor of. They then stepped outside and released their balloons in unison.
