LUMBERTON — Beverly Funderburg was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996.
“I did the chemo, I did the medicine and when I came down here in 1999, it came back,” said Funderburg, a New York native.
The Lumberton resident is now a 20-year survivor of the disease, and she and two-year prostate cancer survivor Barry Deese led more than 200 other cancer survivors in the survivor lap around the Robeson County Relay for Life track on Friday. The two survivors won the honor after their names were drawn to be the Relay for Life’s survivor king and queen.
“I’ve never been so shocked in my life,” Deese said.
For several years Deese, of Fairmont, had been raising money for Relay for Life with his church, Reedy Branch Baptist Church. The cause became more personal when Deese’s biopsy came back positive for prostate cancer in January 2017.
He felt honored to lead the charge in the survivor lap.
“I’ve been supporting Relay for Life for years,” Deese said. “I’m very proud to be a survivor.”
More than 400 survivors RSVP’d for the 25th annual event, according to Morgan Sills, senior manager of Community Development for the American Cancer Society. Also leading the group was Sheriff Burnis Wilkins, in a sheriff’s car displaying pink decals and the pink breast cancer ribbon.
The normally 24-hour event was cut in half in order to put less strain on participants, but that has not affected the numbers, Sills said. As of 7:30 p.m. Friday, $98,958 of the $130,000 goal had been raised and the fundraiser continues to August.
“I definitely think we’re gonna hit that goal,” Sills said.
The success of the event was attributed to the 55 fundraising teams from local churches, businesses and organizations.
“We actually have more teams this year than we normally do. We went up about 10 to 12 teams,” Sills said.
All proceeds raised during the relay help fund support groups for cancer patients and survivors, education for communities and groups regarding the disease, and medical research at universities.
Cancer is the nation’s No. 2 killer, taking almost 600,000 lives a year.
Betty Stallings, captain of the Baltimore Baptist Church team, said now more than ever it’s important for people to come out and support the cause.
“Everybody you know, every family you know has an extended family member, a person at church, a person at work, someone that has dealt with this disease, and I feel like the more people that work toward it, the closer we will come to a cure,” Stallings said.
Stallings lost her husband to cancer at the age of 42 and works in his honor to fight cancer.
Margaret Oxendine could be found Friday making her famous collard sandwiches, selling a homemade hot dog garnish called chow-chow and giving hugs to everyone she meets and shares her story with. Oxendine was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1978. She would win the fight only to be diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2004. But, Oxendine prevailed once more and, at the age of 80, finds herself participating in the Robeson County Relay for Life.
Oxendine said she doubts she will see the day when a cure for cancer is found, but that isn’t stopping her.
“If I don’t make but $100 to give to them, that’s $100 to give,” she said.
Survivor Doc Hunt said cancer has plagued his family, taking his sister from him.
“It hit all of us,” he said.
But Hunt remains optimistic about a cure being found. He sees advances in medicine that three years ago could have helped save the lives of his sister and of others, he said.
Family members of the late Ivan King participated in the Relay For Life on Friday in hope of encouraging others to stay positive in the fight against the disease. King was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma at the age of 21 while he was sophomore at East Carolina University.
After battling the disease for two years, King lost the fight, but his family continues to honor his memory by rallying alongside others in the fight.
“So, after he passed away in early January 2007, we decided we wanted to find a way to give back,” said Phyllis King, Ivan’s sister. “My mom is a cancer survivor as well. So we decided to create a team, ‘Team Ivan.’ We also used his initials as an acronym.”
A T-shirt they were wearing read, “Inspiring a Victorious Attitude Now Romans 15:13.”
“One of the things that my brother would always say during his fight with cancer is ‘hope.’ He had hope,” King said. “He even pressed on and continued to go to school, so you know, he showed us what a fighter looks like. So we thought, if nothing else, we’d come and inspire other families to have hope.”
