Plenty of sunshine with gusty winds developing this afternoon. High 82F. SW winds at 10 to 15 mph, increasing to 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..
A few clouds. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 58F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph.
Updated: April 26, 2024 @ 6:10 am
The Darwin Wall Real Estate Team is holding its 10th annual downtown Chandler pub crawl Oct. 20 and Oct. 21, marking Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a chance to help a Chandler mom who has been on an 18-year cancer journey. (Special to Chandler Arizonan)
The Darwin Wall Real Estate Team is holding its 10th annual downtown Chandler pub crawl Oct. 20 and Oct. 21, marking Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a chance to help a Chandler mom who has been on an 18-year cancer journey. (Special to Chandler Arizonan)
For the 10th consecutive year, Chandler Realtor Darwin Wall is marking Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October with a pub crawl aimed at raising funds for one woman whose life has been upended by the disease.
The Darwin Wall Team will hold its popular Save Second Base Pub Crawl Oct. 20 and Oct. 21, entitling participants for a $75 ticket to a free drink at participating downtown Chandler bars, a State48 pink commemorative T-shirt and a swag bag full of goodies from sponsors.
Participating bars this year are The Perch, Recreo, The Stillery, Murphy’s Law, QuartHaus, Bourbon jacks. Spirit House, San Tan Brewery, Uncommon, La Rista Craft 64 and Matty G’s. A ticket is good for one drink at each establishment both days of the event.
Wall has raised thousands of dollars in each of the past years’ events to benefit a victim his team selects.
This year, the crawl will benefit Chandler single mom Susan Perez, who is unable to work because of the breast cancer first diagnose in 2005 when she was 31.
On the pub crawl’s site, Perez recounts her cancer journey, starting with the biopsy she had within days after noticing a lump in her breast.
That journey didn’t begin well.
“When the doctor returned, all he said was ‘it is cancer.’ I’m certain all the air escaped my body,” she recounted. “I had so many questions about what happens next and so forth, but decided I wanted not only a second opinion, but a different doctor.
“I deserved more than him walking out of the room and the manner in which he delivered the news. I left his office that day still with stitches and a bandage. I was worried and so unsure what this diagnosis meant for me.”
She found a more understanding physician, but received a dreaded diagnosis:
“There was lymph node involvement,” Perez wrote. “This unfortunately ruled out some of the advanced techniques that were breast sparing. From there I decided to have a mastectomy and knew that chemotherapy and radiation were in my future as well.”
She sustained burns from the radiation and “the radiation also burnt me inside… So, stomach problems and throat issues were a result too.”
After months of chemotherapy and radiation, Perez had her second breast removed and eventually was put on annual check-ups.
Unfortunately, her journey didn‘t end.
“Thus began life after cancer and my goal of making it to a clean bill of health for five years,” Perez recalled. “If I made it to the five-year mark, I was ‘in the clear’ and my cancer had minimal chances of recurring. Or so I thought…fast forward to the end of my eighth year cancer free.”
“I began to have horrible stomach aches and issues that would not resolve. They were infrequent at first and then became unbearable,” she wrote.
Doctors eventually removed her gallbladder but after three months, “the pain came back with a vengeance.”
After a battery of tests, she continued, “The ER doctor came in and simply said ‘it’s back.’ I was so confused, I had come in because of horrible stomach pain, was he telling me my gallbladder grew back? What exactly was back? I mean I was eight years cancer free, THAT was the last thing I was thinking he could mean. He must have been able to see the confusion on my face, because then he said it…’your cancer is back.’”
Perez’s cancer had metastasized to her lungs and bones and she is now facing life-long treatment.
Perez is marking 10 years of taking special medication aimed at curbing the cancer and is in her fourth year of a regimen that has reduced some of the painful side effects she experienced from her previous one.
“I have also not had any further growth or fluid on my lungs,” she wrote. “I am an outlier. I will have 10 years with my metastatic diagnosis this fall. Ten birthdays when I was told I may only get one more. I am so grateful to my oncology and medical team. They have made my initially very scary cancer journey less scary and so much more hopeful.”
“I am not cancer and cancer does not have me,” she wrote.
Tickets for the pub crawl can be purchase at savesecondbasepubcrawl.com, which also has additional information.
People who don’t drink or can’t attend the crawl, also can help by making a monetary donation via that site. People who have questions can contact Wall at dwall@darwinwall.com.
Sponsors for the pub crawl include Venus IV AZ, Wohland, Big Family Pools, Chandler Flex Rewards, Andrea Feeney, Muscular Moving Men, QBE, Epic Loans, Ocotillo Living, JM Wall, BackFit, SoCal, Frose & Flower Walls, VIP Mortgage;
AZ Event Logisitics, Chandler Lifestyles, Turf Hub, Fenton, Bounce Back, Sound Effects, Oakwood Homes, Next Level Credit, Bingham, Stratton Home Inspections, Gerson Realty, Dixon Construction, Target Truck Rental;
Majestic Theatres, AZ Turf Care, Universal Healing & Wellness, Legacy Lending, Fairway Mortgage and Senior Helpers.
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