Power of Pink Creates Hope and Healing

"The Pink Heals Tour and the "Cares Enough to Wear Pink" program is about our community, our family, our neighbors, and our leaders and how it will help bring us back together to focus on our own people now, rather than on promises that were never kept, opportunities that were lost, and things that might have been. Pink will heal as long as we do it in service to our women and what they mean to us in our communities, not just because they are sick or stricken with cancer. Because if we use illness as the sole motivation for action, once the sickness is gone, so is our cause for coming together," said founder David Graybill.  

 The Pink Heals Tour joined the Destin Fire Dept. to show support and raise awareness for those who are diagnosed with cancer and for their families who also face hardships.  4-year-old Carolyn Hendrix and Rita Lehman are two locals who are fighting that battle and were the beneficiaries for this event.

Carolyn has two older brothers and lives with her family in Pensacola. In May of 2013 she was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma, a rare bone cancer which has required her to endure nine months of chemotherapy and extensive surgery. Carolyn's mom, Kathryn, hopes for advances in treatment for childhood cancer. "Her (Carolyn) chemo, is the same chemo treatment she would have been on 20 years ago and think of all of the strides in other kinds of cancers."  The Pink Heals Tour is here to help change that on a national level.

About 11,630 children in the United States under the age of 15 will be diagnosed with cancer in 2013 according to the American Cancer Society. Cancer not only affects the children but the entire family. Mothers, Fathers, Brothers and Sisters fight the battle alongside, this is why the Pink Heals program puts all women and children first before themselves.

Rita Lehman lost two sisters to breast cancer and was diagnosed with the disease in 2006 at the age of 42. She battled and survived the cancer and thought she had won. Four months ago, she checked into the emergency room with neck pain that resulted in a devastating discovery. Her C2 vertebra was eroded by a lesion and she was in imminent danger of internal decapitation. The lesion was malignant and the prognosis of chemotherapy and radiation are not going to save her life, which has caused her and her family to start looking aggressively into alternative treatments of life saving options.

On Sunday, over 20 Destin and area Firemen and women pulled a 7,000 lb. fire truck through the village with bare hands and rope. One of those firemen was Lt. Mark Baugh of the Destin Fire Department who is a cancer survivor himself. In December of 2011 he was diagnosed with Myeloma, survived and was able to host this year's Pink Heals Tour event. Sunday kicked off the fundraising event with over $1,600 raised for Carolyn and Rita, which will continue for the rest of the month.   

"It's our hope that we can offer many more local women and children who are struggling with cancer related stress and pressures, some much needed hope and healing. The need for fundraising is paramount, but the smiles from these families are indeed priceless. They have touched us deeply,  displayed bravery and courage beyond measure," said Jamie Marie Hall, Marketing, Events and Public Relations for HarborWalk Village.