This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Local Woman Celebrates Survival Along With Thousands

Sherrill Jackson, a breast cancer survivor who will attend the Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure, works hard to educate others, especially African American women, about the disease.

Florissant resident Sherrill Jackson will be proudly participating in Saturday’s Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure in downtown St. Louis as a breast cancer survivor and active member of the breast cancer community on the local and national levels.

“I am a 19-year survivor,” said Jackson, who turns 65 in September. “My cancer was detected by a mammogram, and it just blew me away when I heard. One year it was normal, and the next year it was abnormal.”

In addition to getting treatment, Jackson credits her husband and family with their incredible support for helping her through the process.

However, at the time, talking about breast cancer in the black community was just not done. So in 1997, along with a few other women, she began talking with others who were diagnosed with breast cancer. From these initial discussions with just four women grew an organization known as The Breakfast Club, which supports other African-American women who receive the same diagnosis.

“The Breakfast Club was formed in 1997, two years before the Race for the Cure came to St. Louis, to help African-American women deal with breast cancer,” Jackson, who is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner with Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Centers, said. “It’s not talked about in the black community; it’s more open now than in the past, but it took me five years to publicly say I was a survivor.”

As president of the club, Jackson said the nonprofit organization now numbers around 140 members, 99 percent of whom are survivors. The club focuses on black women because of the mortality disparity between Caucasian and-African American women. 

“Caucasian women get breast cancer more than black women, but the mortality rate is higher in the African-American community,” Jackson said. “The issue of why more black women die from the disease is being studied.”

Meanwhile, Jackson and her fellow club members work hard to educate others about breast cancer and the resources available. The Breakfast Club writes grants to fund various projects, such as providing women who don’t have insurance with free bras and breast forms, bringing mammography vans to churches and meeting with prison inmates to educate them on breast health.

In addition to her work with The Breakfast Club, Jackson served on the board of the St. Louis Affiliate of the Komen organization. She was then asked to serve on the African American National Advisory Council for Komen, which she did for four years.

On Saturday, Jackson will walk the race with The Breakfast Club as well as with The Breakfast Club Brothers, which is made up of the husbands, sons, brothers and men in the lives of the women survivors. She will also participate in the Survivor Procession at 7:25 a.m.

“It’s an emotional day because you’re down there with all these survivors of all colors and ethnicities; it’s kind of like a sisterhood in unity,” Jackson said. “You don’t have to know people, you just know that you and this stranger have shared this experience, so it makes you feel bonded. No matter how many years of celebration you get this feeling that this bonds you.”

But Jackson admits it’s not all joyous.

“You get a little bit of sadness for the ones who didn’t make it," she said. "For them I feel that I’m their voice to keep fighting and to hope there’s a cure so we won’t see breast cancer anymore.”

All survivors receive a pink rose upon crossing the finish line, which is another emotional moment for them.

“It’s a good feeling to receive that rose. It’s like someone else is celebrating your day, and they’re recognizing you and saying ‘We’re proud of you and we want to celebrate you,’” Jackson said. “It’s wonderful, and it’s humbling. I’m 19 years out, but you’ll see people who have just been diagnosed and some who are in the middle of treatment. But on Race Day you don’t think about yourself and you don’t think about your treatment, it’s just a day of celebration.”

It’s not too late to register for the Race for the Cure. If you don’t want to attend in person, you can sign up for Sleep In for the Cure; you’ll receive your race T-shirt a few weeks after the race.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Florissant