Cancer, survivors will tell you, is never truly quieted.
Even in defeat, the disease inflicts wounds that don’t always show up on screenings.
“Survivorship is a really hard part of the journey,” Nocatee mom Renae Szymczak told The Citizen at the annual “Pink Party” breast cancer fundraiser this week. “Emotionally, it is very hard.”
But rather than retreat from the frontline after a double mastectomy and several failed reconstructive surgeries, the co-chair of Noc’n Out Breast Cancer has vowed to help lead the fight.
The Maryland native helped organize this week’s glittering gala, which packed in more than 100 attendees at Nocatee’s South Kitchen for a night of support, joy and hope.
Noc’n Out Breast Cancer’s prolific fundraising arm has raised more than $20,000 since January alone, and will present a check in that amount to the Donna Foundation in October at TPC Sawgrass.
Formed just three years ago, the nonprofit already boasts 275 members and has attracted a range of supportive sponsors.
Lining up behind them, South Kitchen donated 10% percent of all food and drink proceeds from Monday’s event to the organization.
One lucky guest, Faith Drennen, drew a $3000 raffle prize— but drew cheers after donating her windfall to the night’s cause.
Pink balloons bobbed inside the eatery’s festive dining hall as attendees filed in wearing their finest rose-colored clothing. Some in the crowd had beaten cancer, others came to honor friends and relatives who had succumbed to it.
The disease, Szymczak said, burst into her life like an early morning home invasion. She was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago while still in her late thirties.
“It was a shock,” said the Coastal Oaks resident, who lives with her naval officer husband and two small children. “It came out of nowhere. I didn’t have any signs or symptoms. I was healthy.”
Subduing the threat, she said, required both physical and mental fortitude. Doctors told her that mastectomies were unavoidable if she hoped to see her kids grow up.
“It’s so much more than just losing your breasts,” she said of the procedure. “It’s your femininity. Those are the parts of my body that fed my babies.”
Two years later, the accomplished singer and former musical director at a Maryland church was told that she was cancer free.
The event’s co-chair, retired nurse Robin Robson, was first diagnosed with the disease in her 50s and underwent a lumpectomy and radiation. The treatment was initially successful, but the cancer resurfaced once again six years later.
Robson endured a grueling 10-hour double mastectomy and has now been cancer free for two years.
“A lot of of the people I’m running into now [who are diagnosed with cancer] are in their 30s and 40s with small children,” she said. “I can’t imagine what that would be like.”
Sczymczak echoed that thought, and encouraged women to get early screenings.
The singer gave Monday’s crowd a melodic testament to the power of self-belief Monday, belting out “This is Me” and “When You Believe” to a standing ovation and raised pink cocktails.
“Survivors like myself who feel comfortable sharing their stories need to go out there and spread that awareness,” she said. “Because no one thinks it’s going to be them.”
Szymczak started a support group on Facebook called Tatas and Tapas Nocatee to help young mothers like herself navigate a cancer diagnosis.
