NEWPORT, R.I. – Jeremy Dias, a freshman nursing major at Salve Regina University, has organized a walk to bring awareness to oral cancer on Saturday, Nov. 13 at 10 a.m. at Bay View Academy, 3070 Pawtucket Ave. in East Providence.
‘Beth’s Walk 2 Make Oral Cancer History,’ planned in conjunction with the Oral Cancer Foundation, is in memory of Dias’s mother, Beth Jussaume, who died last year after battling this disease.
Cost to participate is $25 per walker. To register or sponsor a walker, visit: http://www.oralcancer-screening.org/events/index.php?com=detail&eID=62
“My mother was a courageous young woman who fought a long, difficult battle like most men and women who are plagued with oral cancer,” Dias said. “As a young man trying to finish high school and plan my future in college, I lost my beloved mother and friend who fought an almost six year battle of chemotherapy, radiation, surgeries, and countless biopsies.”
Just months after his mom’s funeral services, Dias knew he needed to do something.
“The idea of a walk to bring awareness of oral cancer to others in my community is so that no other individual will have to share the same fate as my mom,” he said. “I feel her legacy is now to save lives and have her memory live on and to remember all those who lost their lives to this disease as well.”
There will be free oral cancer screenings available at the event to both participants and to the public.
The Oral Cancer Foundation is a national public service, non-profit entity designed to reduce suffering and save lives through prevention, education, research, advocacy, and patient support activities.
Approximately 36,000 people in the US will be newly diagnosed with oral cancer in 2010. This includes those cancers that occur in the mouth itself, in the very back of the mouth known as the oropharynx, and on the exterior lip of the mouth.
For more information on the walk, please contact Jeremy Dias at bethswalk@aol.com or 508-250-2267.