SCSU raises money for breast cancer

With October being breast cancer awareness month, the Recreation Center at SCSU hosted a Pink for Pilates fundraising event for breast cancer awareness and education.

“I found out about the Pilates for Pink in Shape Magazine,” said Debra Heymans. “They were doing the fundraiser in New York so I thought we could have something here for breast cancer awareness month.”

“We offered four sessions on Saturday. We had a Pilates and a yoga class at 9 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. and another set of Pilates and yoga classes at 10 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. We also had massages at a discount price during the event,” Heymans said.

Thirty people attended the sessions while $220 dollars was raised in donations to go towards breast cancer research.

“When I was reading the magazine, it mentioned that you can’t just expect people to give away money,” Heymans said.

“When we were thinking about it, Pilates and yoga would be great to bring in people for breast cancer awareness. Plus the name has a nice ring to it.”

The group fitness instructors from the Campus Recreation that helped out in the event were Chris Haukos, Jennifer Brozik, Serah Mills and Amy Peterson.

“Chris has done many events on campus,” Heymans said.

“She helped me with all the little detailed things, giving me tips. I wouldn’t have been able to done everything without some help. Amy, Serah and Jenn all helped out.

“I did one of the Pilates classes. Chris taught one of the Pilates classes. Serah and Amy both did the yoga classes. It would have been hard without any of them.”

Christian George came to the event to talk about breast cancer and what young women today can do to keep themselves breast cancer free.

“It is a hard subject to deal with and it is a very serious thing,” Heymans said.

“Most women don’t have a lot of education on the subject and we are just trying to branch out to as many younger girls with this being a college campus.

“Christiana talked briefly about the subject directed towards young faces,” Heymans said. “She gave an overview on how to protect yourself. The Health Department in Halenbeck helped us by giving us a breast cancer model with different sizes of cancer on the model and what they would look and feel like.”

“Visual aids get the sense of the subject and make it more real. There was also a necklace that the girls could feel that had different sizes of breast cancer as the beads. One size had about the same diameter as a silver dollar and one had the size of a pea. The silver dollar size represented the possible size of the cancer without getting tested or having an exam and the pea size one represented the early stages. ”

Heymans has had run-ins with breast cancer in her family history. Her Aunt Toni was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago and has been breast cancer free since.

“It has been in my family for quite some time,” Heymans said. “Personally with breast cancer being in my family in the past, I have do what I can to prevent it,” Heymans said.

“We don’t want to scare anybody with it, but we just want women keep it on their mind. A woman can check herself monthly to make sure no lumps are appearing. Also, she can get a mammogram from the doctor’s office. Some places give free mammograms.”

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month just celebrated its 25th year of awareness, education and empowerment. For more information about breast cancer awareness month go to nbcam.org.