Ashley Levinson (left) stands beside Lu Ann Cahn during last year’s Gloucester County Goes Pink. The event raises awareness of breast cancer with education, fundraising and support.
The Making Strides Against Breast Cancer organization will team with the county to host the Gloucester County Goes Pink event at Chestnut Branch Park on Saturday, Aug. 23, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The goal of the event is to raise awareness for breast cancer by educating people, fundraising and supporting the cancer-awareness organization, which is part of the American Cancer Society. Breast cancer and health services will be available.
There will be several guest speakers, including Dr. Nandini Kulkarni of Inspira, and a mantle-cell lymphoma survivor, Brian O’Sullivan. The event will also feature a 1.5-mile walk and pet parade that will circle the park.
Helping to organization the event is Mantua resident and breast cancer survivor Ashley Levinson. She was diagnosed in July of 2023 and underwent several rounds of chemotherapy until January of this year, when she was declared cancer-free.
“What most people do not see or understand is, a breast-cancer diagnosis throws you into a life of treatments, doctor appointments, surgeries, tests, scans and your body and soul dealing with the trauma,” she explained. “But the journey does not end there. Survivorship means a new world of accepting your changed body, self-image and health and despite the stage of your journey, it takes an army, a community – in a word, support.”
This year’s pink event is the second in the county, which ranked first out of the state’s 21 counties for highest breast-cancer incidence rate, with an average of 307.1 per 100,000 women from 40 to 74, according to NJ.gov. That compares with the state average of 275.7 per 100,000 women in the same age group.
Levinson began organizing the fundraiser to provide victims and survivors with support systems.
“That was my reason for starting Gloucester County Goes Pink last year,” she noted. “I wanted families and communities dealing with breast cancer to know they never walk alone, and I wanted to give back to the organization that was there for me and so many others, Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.
“I want this day to be about breast-cancer thrivers and survivors feeling empowered by an event that sees them, hears them and lifts them up.”
