Making Strides Against Breast Cancer holds kickoff event

Wednesday night was the kick-off event for the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer season. It is an event where team members and survivors raise awareness and pledge money for breast cancer research.

WINK News has introduced you to Holly Digilarmo before. She’s a breast cancer survivor.

WINK News caught up to her again on Wednesday while she was playing Pac-Man at Dave & Buster’s. Her shirt, with the phrase #hollystronger, says it all.

“I’m a breast cancer survivor for years. I had ER PR positive HER2 negative, stage two cancer. I had five months of chemotherapy, 33 rounds of radiation, and then I took the ovaries out to prevent a reoccurrence,” said Digilarmo.

On Wednesday, she got to share her journey as a spotlight speaker at the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event.

“I’ve been active in strides since 2018. Strides is wonderful. It helped me personally as a patient. This is why I pay it forward,” said Digilarmo.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer held its kick-off event Wednesday night, and the message was clear.

“Raise awareness, get teams joined on, we want you to get on making strides Southwest Florida get on a team and start raising money,” said Merry Coffman, director of marketing communications for Pure Florida.

WINK New’s Lindsey Sablan emceed the event. For her, this topic hits home. “My stepmom was diagnosed with breast cancer while I was still in college. And my two stepsisters were very young at the time, so my family knows directly what so many of these families are going through. And now we are the other ends. And what we realized, once you become a part of this group that you never want to be part of, is that support means everything.”

Also in attendance was the group Real Men Wear Pink, and this year, a familiar face joined in. WINK New’s own Corey Lazar.

“This is something that I know if I reach out to my family, my friends, my neighbors, and we raise awareness, and we raise money for the cause. It’s helping people here in Southwest Florida who are suffering,” said Lazar.

To learn more about upcoming events, visit the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event page.