North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Hope For Future Generations
2/11/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Updated: 2-11-2008 with larger photo gallery.
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. Just before the Sunday’s tip-off for the third-annual Hoops for Hope, NC State women’s basketball coach Kay Yow picked up her 10-month-old namesake and lightly kissed her on the cheek, a tangible promise for a brighter future.
Maybe Isabelle Kay Yow won’t grow up in a world with breast cancer. At the very least, hopes NC State’s Hall of Fame coach, she will grow up in a world that has changed the life of every patient diagnosed with cancer, through research and technology.
No more gut-turning chemotherapy or radiation treatments. No more debilitating side effects. No more wigs and headbands.
“I would hope, as we continue to get new drugs to fight this disease, that shes grows up in a world where, if it is detected early, there is a 95 to 99 percent chance against recurrence," Yow said.
“Or, maybe by the time she gets older, there will even be a cure, new drugs that can target the tumor cells and just zap them.”
If it happens, Isabelle and the world will owe a debt of gratitude to the great aunt whose courageous and well-chronicled fight against breast cancer has brought the issue to the fore, with events like Hoops for Hope and the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
Sunday’s Hoops for Hope was the biggest yet, in which 8,041 spectactors were on hand to see NC State present a check for $42,400 to the Komen’s Triangle affiliate. The money was raised with a $5 donation from each ticket sold and a pre-game silent auction that raised some $11,000. An additional $10,000 was presented to the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund, an newly formed off-shoot of the V Foundation for Cancer Research, by the
And Team Yow was in its finest form, disposing of
The players were best exemplified by sophomore Amber White, who spent the entire post-game celebration writhing on
“We all knew coming into this game, that this day was for [Coach Yow],” said junior Shayla Fields, who contributed a career-high 24 points.
But that’s not really true. The day was really for cancer survivors, and Yow was but one of hundreds in Reynolds Coliseum.
Her only regret for this day was that she didn’t get to participate in the Halftime March of Survivors.
More than 100 others did, some with tears streaming down their face as they lined up in the shape of a pink ribbon on the court.
“That is a real emotional part of this event for the survivors, and I can’t be a part of it,” said Yow, who was in the lockerroom with her team at intermission. “It satisfies me that they all get to be a part of it and that it is something we can give to them. That really lifts me up.
“And a lot of them tell me how much it lifts them up. I just wish I could speak with every survivor, shake every hand and hear every one of their stories.”
After the game, Yow made one more emotional presentation, to Jeanne Peck, an NC State database administrator and cancer survivor who first got Yow involved with the Race for the Cure more than a decade ago. Peck received the Courage Angel Pin, a specially designed gold pin donated by Jolley’s Jewelers that is passed each year to a person dedicated to helping others fight cancer.
“She is the person who first got me involved with the Race for the Cure in
Last summer’s race, on the campus of
“Jeanne was obviously a special person for me to give it to,” Yow said. “I was really happy that she was chosen to be the person to receive it. She is so worthy because she has dedicated a lot of her life to help others battle this disease.”
And that’s the kind of dedication that Yow hopes will bring a better future for fighting cancer to Isabelle’s generation, and all that follow.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
