Tickets are on sale for Kaweah Delta Breast Center’s 5th annual Pink Tea Party, whose “Alice in Wonderland” theme will transform the Visalia Convention Center on Sunday, Oct. 23, with national speaker, author and breast cancer survivor Dr. Sheri Phillips Prentiss.
The event’s keynote speaker will be Dr. Sheri, a physician, national spokesperson for Susan G. Komen 3-Day, and author of “When Everything Changed: My Journey from Physician to Patient.” In her book, Dr. Sheri lays bare the raw emotions of facing death:
“October 1, 2008 was when everything changed. I didn’t get married, didn’t have a baby and didn’t get a new job. I found a lump in my right breast. Normally, I would have run to tell my mother, but I was frozen by my discovery. I knew it was cancer from the moment I felt it, because no one knows my body better than I do.”
After having 16 lymph nodes removed and a partial mastectomy in 2008, Dr. Sheri is a cancer survivor traveling the world to motivate women and help patients and healthcare practitioners change the way healthcare is delivered. She is a board certified occupational and environmental medicine physician and a public health expert who also designed a compression arm sleeve to combat lymphedema. Lymphedema is swelling in an arm or leg caused by a lymphatic system blockage. It’s most commonly caused by lymph node removal or damage due to cancer treatment.
“I’m excited to be a part of this event that is bringing awareness to breast cancer and celebrating women for the hope, strength and courage they’ve shown in facing cancer,” Dr. Sheri said.
Kaweah Delta’s pink tea party will begin at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 23, at the Visalia Convention Center, 303 E. Acequia Ave. Individual tickets are $25, while tables are $200 and can be purchased by calling 624-2242. Tickets must be purchased in advance of the event. For more information, go to http://www.kaweahdelta.org/about/special-events/pink-tea-party/default.aspx
The event will also include music, opportunity drawings, a photo booth and a walk of hope rose ceremony honoring those whose lives have been touched by breast cancer. Roses will be sold for $5 and proceeds from the sale will go to the Lost Girls Fund created by the Lost Girls Motorcycle Club. If a low-income woman is in need of a mammogram and cannot pay for it, the fund pays for the mammogram at the Kaweah Delta Breast Center. Since 2011, the Kaweah Delta Breast Center’s Pink Tea Party has sold out every year and grown from 100 to 650 attendees.
Located at 4949 W. Cypress Ave. in Visalia, The Kaweah Delta Breast Center is dedicated to comprehensive imaging services for women and is staffed with mammography technologists with experience in breast imaging. Services provided include everything from digital screening and diagnostic mammography to ultrasound-guided breast biopsy and community breast health education resources. To schedule a mammogram and for more information about the Breast Center and its services, call 624-3209 or visit www.kaweahdelta.org.