Lights of Hope ceremony in Raleigh honors cancer victims, survivors

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Volunteers and community members held a ceremony at North Carolina’s State Capitol Sunday honoring survivors of cancer and those who lost their fight. Advocates are calling on lawmakers to prioritize funding for cancer research and treatment.

People said the ultimate goal is a cure, but along the way, they are pushing to make treatment more accessible to everyone. Sunday’s ceremony is about a message of hope for everyone still fighting.

Volunteers lined the paths by the State Capitol, each with a small light inside. Each bag represents someone who lost their life to cancer or a cancer survivor.

“It’s a lot of people and most everybody I know and probably you know, has been affected,” said Rhonda Ferrell, North Carolina lead ambassador for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN).

This Lights of Hope ceremony also serves as a fundraiser for ACS CAN. Ferrell described the experience.

“It is a very emotional thing because it makes you think very much about the people who have gone through all this and the people that we’ve lost and then the people that are still here and how wonderful it is that they’ve been able to get help,” she said.

That includes survivors like Ferrell herself as well as breast cancer survivor Francina Booker, diagnosed back in 2018.

“You see your life flash before you, you no longer take things for granted,” Booker said.

Booker managed to get biomarker testing, allowing her medical team to design a treatment tailored to her specific cancer.

Now, Booker says events like Lights of Hope help her and ACS CAN push for a law requiring insurance companies to cover this testing, which can cost hundreds, even thousands of dollars.

“It’s less stress on the body, you know, mentally and physically and emotionally, but also  knowing that with biomarker testing, it allows you to have quality of life, to enjoy life,” Booker explained.

Booker said she is standing up for everyone who came before her and everyone who will come after her, until there is a cure.

“I also had a sister who passed away from breast cancer in 2015. So I said I need to be her voice,” she said. “We’re going to continue to fight until there is nobody else dying from cancer.”

Volunteers will be heading to DC in mid-September. They will another Lights of Hope ceremony with bags from across the country.

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