Houston’s Cancer Buddies Celebrated In a Highly Emotional Luncheon For CanCare — Giving Hope
A Teary Affair With Extra Heart
By Shelby Hodge //
Celebrating its 30th annual Hope Survivorship luncheon, CanCare filled the River Oaks Country Club with cancer survivors, care givers, family and friends in what could not help but turn out to be a teary affair. Even though the point of the fundraiser is to be upbeat giving the hope of survivorship to all.
And in the end, after tears were shed, after MD Anderson Cancer Center president Dr. Peter Pisters shared with emcee Gina Gaston new advances in cancer research and treatments, and after the goal of $400,000 was met, the day had a happy ending.
In explanation: Reminded of their difficult cancer journeys, survivors standing to celebrate their survivorship often found themselves moved to tears as did those closest to them. Case in point luncheon chairs Phoebe and Bobby Tudor, honorary chairs Stephanie and Frank Tsuru, Ileana and Michael Treviño, this writer herself and Shafik Rifaat have all had their own cancer story. And all were emotional for a moment.
The luncheon honored Amerapex, led by Bashar Kalai and wife Brigitte Kalai, as Corporate Honoree; Dr. Sippi Khurana as Community Honoree; and esteemed entrepreneur and philanthropist Vijay Goradia as Survivor Honoree.
CanCare matches newly diagnosed cancer patients and their care givers with highly trained survivors to accompany them throughout their cancer journey. The mission is to provide hope, which is known to have a dramatic impact on cancer survivorship. That point was made by both CanCare president and CEO Darcie Wells and survivor Michael Wiesenthal, who credited his CanCare buddy with practically saving his life by giving him hope.
As is tradition when the ballroom lights were darkened, each of the 350 luncheon attendees were given a candle that was lighted during a special ceremony honoring loved ones impacted by cancer.
During the National Cancer Survivorship Month of June CanCare will launch “Hope in the Face of Cancer: A Survivor by Your Side” podcast series. For the series, I will be interviewing cancer survivors Donna Lewis of Tootsies and Rosie Carrabba of the Carrabba restaurant family.
PC Seen: Alex Kalai, Regina Rogers, Amy Pierce, Farida Abjani, Alicia Smith, Cathy and David Herr, Ceron, Susan Biggio, Barbara and Peter Forbes, Bonnie Weekley, Lia Vallone, Titus Harris, Vanessa Ames, Jordan Seff, Ginger Blanton, Megan Vondra, Leslie and Val Brock, and Charlie Epps.
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