By Karissa Minn
kminn@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — A Zumbathon at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church this Friday will support three local women who are battling cancer.
The event is sponsored by Thorlo Inc. in Rockwell and will be held from 7-9 p.m. Friday at the church, located at 2570 St. Peter’s Church Road in Salisbury.
Participants will pay $5 to join in an extended dance fitness session to raise money for three women with cancer.
Debbie Allen, a 35-year-old Kannapolis resident, has worked at Thorlo since October 1998. She was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in June of this year.
Allen has had four sessions of chemotherapy so far, which leave her weak and at times needing to use a wheelchair. She has been in and out of the hospital three times and lost 40 pounds because of the cancer.
She has been through biopsies, CAT scans, x-rays, spinal taps and even a bone marrow extract.
“This has been a life-changing experience and has affected me in so many ways,” Allen wrote in a Facebook message. “I’m not the same girl I was four months ago. The love from Thorlo and my friends has been overwhelming.”
Nancy Faulkner Beaver, 51, also is an employee of Thorlo. She lives in Rockwell with her husband, Tony, and she has two daughters, one stepdaughter and five grandsons.
On July 1 of this year, Beaver was told that doctors had found two masses on the right side of her brain. Further testing and surgery confirmed that she has a glioblastoma brain tumor.
Her treatment has consisted of daily trips to Winston-Salem Baptist hospital.
Beaver has undergone brain surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. She was found to be a candidate for a trial chemotherapy, which she will continue to take twice a week for the rest of her life.
She just completed her 43rd day of radiation and treatment on Sept. 19, and a new scan will be done next month.
“This process has been very challenging for her and her family,” supporter Dixie Jones wrote in an email. “But being the (strong-willed) woman that she is and putting her faith in God she has handled everything quite well.”
Kim Rabon, 39, lives in Rowan County with her husband, Jamie, and four children. She was diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer on May 18 of this year – the same day her grandmother died.
She has been undergoing neoadjunctive chemotherapy to reduce the tumor size to make it operable. So far, she has completed eight weeks of treatment.
“If there is one thing I want to say (it is) for all women to make sure you get your mammogram every year,” Rabon wrote in a letter. “I actually skipped two years in 2008 and 2009 because I was pregnant with my youngest child. Even if you can’t afford it or don’t have insurance there are clinics and travel clinics that will provide them for free.”
For more information, call Rhonda Walker at 704-213-2873 (cell) or 704-279-4349 (home).