North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Yow Hopes to Raise Breast Cancer Awareness
12/5/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 5, 2005
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH -- In 1987, Kay Yow didn't have time to think about being sick. Like most coaches, she was more concerned about the day-to-day operation of her successful women's basketball program at NC State and her responsibilities with the United States Olympic team than she was about taking care of herself.
Even though she had an aunt who had breast cancer, Yow never gave a second thought about the possibility she might one day get it.
"I was always one of those people who didn't have a physical and didn't have mammograms," Yow said. "I always had tunnel vision about all the other things I was doing, so I didn't hear it when people said something about getting checked. So I can see how people, even when everybody around you is saying it is something you should do, will ignore the information.
"You simply don't think it is something that will happen to you."
But breast cancer has happened to Yow. Twice, in fact.
The initial bout occurred in 1987, and was treated with a double mastectomy and radiation treatment. Last fall, Yow was as shocked as anyone when she had a recurrence of breast cancer, some 17 years after her first bout. She attacked the cancer with a radical nutritional and diet program, and is near the end of her follow-up radiation treatments.
While Yow has been an avid spokesperson in fighting the disease - she was the honorary chairperson the first three years for Raleigh's Race for the Cure and an active member of the Jimmy V Foundation's Board of Directors - she had never really mixed her fight against the disease with her sport.
That will change on Feb. 19, however, when Yow and her Wolfpack face off against Maryland in "Hoops for Hope," an ACC basketball game that will be used as an event to raise awareness about breast cancer.
In conjunction with Wolfpack Sports Marketing, Yow and her team hope to fill the nearly 10,000 seats in renovated Reynolds Coliseum for the game against the Terps, not only to raise money through ticket sales, but also to raise awareness of the disease.
"We simply hope to increase awareness of what people should be doing," Yow said. "The game is all about raising awareness for breast cancer, and I hope that we can help in providing the research that we can find a way to cure or prevent the disease.
"I am excited that we are doing this, because we can put basketball, a great love of mine, together with a very good cause."
Tickets for the game against the Terrapins are $10 for adults and $5 for youth and are available at here and through the ticket office at 1-800-310-PACK (7225).
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
