Western Navajo Fair holds annual Breast Cancer Awareness Walk
TUBA CITY – On Thursday afternoon, as fairgoers overlooked the abundance of activities happening at the fair, the annual Walk for Breast Cancer Awareness took place on the outskirts of the Western Navajo Fairgrounds.
With a show of hands, dozens of attendees raised their hands, signifying they had breast cancer or knew someone who had breast cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, one in eight women will get breast cancer in their lifetime.
Rainee Style, the 2017-18 Miss Western Navajo, coordinated this year’s walk and moved the location from the previous Greyhills Hills Academy High/chapter house route to the dirt road around the fairgrounds.
“Ahxéhee’ ntsaago for taking the time to come out and walk for breast cancer,” said Style. “As you all know, breast cancer and a lot of other cancers go undiagnosed on the Navajo reservation. It’s either the lack of resources or plain stubbornness from our people who refuse to go to the hospital.”
Style knows the stubborn feeling of going to the hospital well, as she’s had to take her grandmother to the clinic. Her grandmother would get after her on the drive to the hospital.
Tónaneesdizí Local Government President Gerald Keetso took time to recognize his wife, Leslie Keetso, a breast cancer survivor.
“She went through chemo and everything. She’s been cancer-free for 23 years now,” said Gerald Keetso.
Keetso has participated in the walk each year, remembering what his wife went through and knowing that it’s a difficult fight. During his wife’s treatment for breast cancer, they traveled across the country to a place outside of Chicago for help.
“You just have to try any and everything,” said Keetso.
At the time, Keetso’s wife had Stage IV cancer. Today, they continue to be grateful for having tried anything they could.
To Keetso and other families that had a loved one with breast cancer, it means a lot to see their relatives out walking and showing their support.
During the walk, families shared stories of their loved ones who had passed on from breast cancer. Through their stories, they honored the lives that their loved ones had before they got breast cancer.
Rainee Style deeply admired the Navajo Nation Vice President Richelle Montoya, first lady Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren, and Speaker Crystalyne Curley. The women showed up in their walking shoes to walk with the community.
Blackwater-Nygren raised her hand when Keetso asked the community members if they knew someone with breast cancer.
Blackwater-Nygren talked about a relative she knew who had breast cancer yet was still active outside herding sheep. She said that she knows the people with breast cancer are fighters.
The participating walkers wore pink and purple for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Style emphasized the importance of getting checked for breast cancer and other possible health issues and making sure they get checked regularly.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow