BY ANGELICA SHERER & RILEY MATHEWS, NEWS3 Guest Reporters
MACOMB, Illinois (NEWS3) — Western Illinois University students are striving to increase awareness of breast cancer during the month of October.
Yazmin Escobar, a senior at Western Illinois University, said that she has a personal connection to breast cancer awareness month.
“My grandmother has breast cancer,” Escobar said. “She had it initially when I was in eighth grade, and she got through it the first time. And then about a month ago, we found out that she has it again.”
Escobar said she has intense emotions about having a family member with breast cancer.
“It was really scary,” she said. “I lived with her at the time, so I was around her everyday. I had to see how chemotherapy and everything deteriorated her body, so that was really sad.”
Escobar shared tips on how to support someone who has been diagnosed with this disease.
“You have to be there for a person because, obviously, what they are going through is huge and you do not want to minimize their feelings about it,” she said.
Student-run organizations at Western Illinois University are tabling and planning events throughout the month of October to bring awareness to breast cancer.
The National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, The Good Girls Movement, and student ambassadors in the Women’s Center are just some of the organizations on campus that have events planned in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
For more information on these events, contact the Women’s Center at 309-298-2242.
