Employees compete to raise money for breast cancer walk

By Frances Vanderploeg

Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008 | midnight

The Green Valley branch of Women's Specialty Care hasn't looked like a traditional women's health office for the last couple of weeks.

Walking in the doors, patients can't help but see lines of something — cookies, hot dogs or items from home — greeting them at the door, begging to be purchased.

It may seem unusual at first, but given the purpose, it makes sense. The employees of the five offices of Women's Specialty Care are in a friendly competition to raise as much money as possible for the ninth annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk Oct. 4 at the JW Marriott resort in Summerlin. All money raised benefits breast cancer research sponsored by the American Cancer Society.

Last year, the walk raised $350,000, and Paulette Anderson, spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society, expects this year the group will do even better.

Shannon Blum, human resources director at Green Valley's branch, said the office workers participate every year and normally are sponsored by the company. This year, they decided to make it a competition, with each staff coming up with its own ideas.

The other locations, all of which are competing, are near Rainbow Boulevard and the Las Vegas Beltway, Summerlin Hospital, MountainView Hospital and Centennial Hills Hospital.

The money goes toward helping survivors like Green Valley resident Erica Pimentel. In December 2006, the day before she turned 25, Pimentel found out she had breast cancer and was in the worst stage, stage IV, meaning it had spread into another organ.

Getting to that diagnosis was a struggle. She was originally misdiagnosed based on her age and lack of family history of cancer. A few months later, she looked for a second opinion, which is when she received the confirmation.

After chemotherapy, radiation and four surgeries, she was pronounced cancer-free in October 2007, but in July it came back and spread throughout her body.

She lost her hair, eyebrows, eyelashes and her left breast, but the most heartbreaking ordeal was losing the baby she was pregnant with last July, she said.

"The whole thing is really difficult," Pimentel said.

She has a son, Emmanuel, 9, but he's staying with family in California while she battles her cancer, she said.

"It's hard, in my head, to stay positive," she said. "I have to be positive, though, because I want to see my son get married."

Programs offered by the American Cancer Society have had a lot to do with her keeping a smile on her face, she said.

Funding raised by events such as the Strides walk go not only toward research, but also for wigs patients can take for free and a "Look Good, Feel Better" program that brings in licensed cosmetologists to teach patients how to redraw their eyebrows, play up their eyelashes and make their wigs look natural.

Anderson said the cancer society tries to make Strides a team-building event, so participants are asked to form teams as early as possible.

At the Green Valley office, each of the employees had pink streaks or extensions in their hair in support of Strides. As of Sept. 9, Blum said, her office raised $500 for the walk.

The weekend of Sept. 22, the employees will hold a car wash in the clinic's parking lot, 10170 S. Eastern Ave.

For more information, call the Green Valley office at 914-7050 or visit www.womensspecialtycare.com to find the location closest to you.

Frances Vanderploeg can be reached at 990-2660 or [email protected].