Woman starts group for herself, others with cervical cancer
Pamela Smialek of Bloomingdale wants to make purple the new pink.
She is on a mission to spread awareness in the fight against cervical cancer, and make its color, purple, just as synonymous with prevention and early detection as pink is for breast cancer.
Her quest goes public on May 4, when the My Day Foundation she started holds its first walk-a-thon in Busse Woods in Elk Grove Village.
The 5-mile trek opens at 8 a.m. with registration before the 10 a.m. step-off, over the bridge and into the forest preserve.
"We were looking for something active and positive, to start out our fundraising efforts," says Smialek, who grew up in Des Plaines and now works in the trucking industry out of an Elk Grove office.
She hopes to recruit walkers, teams and sponsors to register before Monday. For more information, visit mydaylooking.org.
"We need to raise start-up funds to grow our foundation," Smialek says. "And besides, I wanted to meet other women (with cervical cancer) and reach out to them."
Smialek herself was diagnosed last summer, and immediately underwent successful surgery. However, she adds, that she returns to the doctor every three months for checkups, and that her battle with the disease will be lifelong.
"When I was diagnosed, I wasn't sure where to turn to find more information about this disease," Smialek says. "I had personal support around me from family and friends, but when I turned to the Internet, I couldn't find any organization that focused exclusively on cervical cancer."
Her energy behind the new foundation, is contagious. Officials at Shark City in Bloomingdale organized a fundraising tournament last week to boost awareness with contests in pool, darts and bean bags.
Smialek also has drawn other supporters to join her foundation board. Like Smialek, they were driven, in part, by the fact that there were few organizations dedicated solely to women with cervical cancer.
"I wanted to help women find help and support once they've been diagnosed," says Mike Staffa of Glendale Heights. "We'd like for them to be able to go to one place to get the information they need, rather than having to weave through hundreds and hundreds of Web sites to get some information.
Their goal is to raise awareness and dispel some of the misconceptions about the disease, Smialek says. They also urge the importance of women getting regular screening in an effort to promote early detection.
They point to these statistics documented by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle: Between 60 to 80 percent of women diagnosed with cervical cancers have not had a Pap test in the past five years, and many have never had a Pap test at all.
What's more, in 2007 alone, more than 11,000 new cases of cervical cancer were diagnosed across the country.
"My hope is that through strength and determination," Smialek adds, "every woman affected by cervical cancer will wake up and say, 'Today is My Day.' "