Richland One bus drivers “Walk for Breast Cancer,” honor survivors

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — According to the American Cancer Society, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes — as well as around 1% of men.

As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, around 75 bus drivers and aides with Richland School District One’s Student Transportation Services Department took a “Walk for Breast Cancer,” honoring three of their coworkers and friends who are also breast cancer survivors.

Those in attendance say the laps around the bus yard also show their support for women and men still fighting breast cancer, while remembering the lives that have been taken by it.

Stefanie Mitchell has been in remission from breast cancer for 15 years. Margaret Anderson has been in remission for five years, and Terry Dearman has been in remission for seven years.

The women say the morning walk with their friends and coworkers is especially meaningful for them.

“I am so proud of everyone. They are very very supportive, and they have shown more love today, in my time here. They show love…but not like today. And I’m grateful to God for it because they’re good people. They’re good people and they have good intentions,” says Anderson.

They encourage all women to get their annual mammograms.

“Mine, I didn’t have a lump. It was all in my milk duct. And I had a partial mastectomy due to that. But I didn’t go through any pain. Like a lot of people went through radiation and chemo, I bless the lord I didn’t go through that,” says Anderson.

Mitchell, however, did have to undergo chemotherapy and radiation. She says she’s thankful to her family for taking care of her through it all.

“Life is awesome. Life is awesome. No matter what you go through in life, if you can get through this, you can get through anything,” says Mitchell.

For Dearman, having breast cancer was a wake up call, saying, “When you get cancer, you kind of really die, and you get reborn. God gives you a chance to relive your life. And you don’t take it for granted.”

According to the American Cancer Society, when caught in its earliest stages, there’s now a 99% survival rate for breast cancer, with nearly 4 million survivors across the country.