Dwight Powell stood in front of more than 100 student-athletes at Paul Quinn College, telling a story he’s told before.
Not that it ever gets easy.
“I lost my mother to cancer when I was 20,” Powell said. “And she kept it to herself. She didn’t share it with me at all – she didn’t want to burden me that she was fighting that battle.”
Then, the Mavericks’ veteran center delivered the most important message to his young audience.
“It is what it is, but I would have loved to have been in that fight with her, regardless if the outcome was the same or not,” Powell said. “One thing that’s difficult for us is to know that it can be a team fight. We can face those fears together.
“We’re not going to win every battle, but together we can face a lot of those battles with a lot more strength and come out on top.”
Facing the fears of cancer, and in particular breast cancer and other forms of the disease that impact primarily females, was a major part of the educational process that was aimed at the college students as the Mavericks partnered with the Kay Yow Cancer Fund in the EmPOWERment Tour, which made stops at Paul Quinn, UT-Arlington and SMU last week.
As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Powell and Dereck Lively II both shared their stories with the students, as did Odyssey Sims of the Dallas Wings.
Statistics show one in three women will contract some sort of cancer in their life. But the Mavericks and Kay Yow fund tried to explain ways to deal with it if that unthinkable phone call comes.
“The Mavericks came on with Kay Yow to sponsor an empowerment tour,” said Emily Honeycutt, Mavericks’ manager of corporate social responsibility. “The point of the tour is to talk to student-athletes and students in general about the importance of using their platform to spread awareness and educate others on the importance of taking care of your body against cancers that primarily impact women. And just using that platform (to) change the narrative around it all.”
Kay Yow was the legendary North Carolina State women’s basketball coach who died of breast cancer in 2009. She had a vision to create a fund to raise money for life-saving cancer research, said Nanna Rivers, a former player for Yow who now owns her on life-coaching company, Own Your Life, and who works tirelessly with the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
The fund has raised more $8.28-million toward the fight against cancer.
“How do we help women live longer, better lives? How do we impact the lives of women you love?” Rivers asked the students. “We do it by being educated about cancer, empowered to be able to take action and be equipped with the resources to really make a difference. That’s how we do it.”
Powell and Lively have seen the impact of cancer up close and know that the fight is impossibly hard, but easier to navigate as a team.
“It’s very difficult and I think you’d be surprised just how many people in this room have faced things that are just as difficult,” Powell said as he looked around at the students. “That’s one thing we tried to speak about – sharing your story, sharing your experience and helping people face those fears. It’s very difficult, easier said than done, but the more we can talk about it, the better equipped we’ll be able to face those challenges as a community and overcome them in the future.”
Lively got a long applause when he told the story about his mother’s fight against breast cancer.
“I try to get myself more involved with events like this knowing my mom has been through it,” Lively said. “. These instances make your family stronger, make you closer and make you a better person.
“My mom had been through chemo treatments, radiation, stem-cell transplants from New York all the way down to Houston. This (was) going on since I was nine. Finally on Aug. 9 last year, we got the call that she was cancer-free.”
A banner at the event was imprinted with this message: “Over 30 percent of cancers can be prevented when patients have access to quality cancer healthcare.”
That message was driven home to students who were asked to post messages on their various social-media platforms about the importance of getting regular check-ups and making sure friends and family are doing what’s needed to protect themselves.
“Your presence is a gift,” said Rivers. “Somebody needs you. Your family needs you. You need you. You are powerful. We all have influence.
“There are barriers: the fear of the unknown, lack of health insurance, lack of finances. Also, lack of transportation. Everyone can’t afford a car, so people start going for their treatments. But self-care is a barrier we have control over.”
Sims lost one of her best friends, Tiffany Jackson-Jones, who like Sims went to Duncanville High School, to breast cancer in October, 2022.
“Anytime you can be a part of impacting lives and of course saving lives, that’s major,” Sims said. “We have somebody getting cancer every minute. This was a very, very good event. Hopefully this group can continue to spread the word.
“She (Jackson-Jones) was like my sister. She was battling it for the last year or two before she passed. Check on your family members and friends. It could be a simple checkup that could turn into a life-changer.”
Powell established the Dwight Powell Children and Family Support Program at UT-Southwestern hospital in Dallas. He did so in honor of his mother.
And that’s just part of his contributions to try to raise awareness and money for cancer research.
“I love the game of basketball. It’s provided me with far more than I could have ever imagined and it’s my passion,” he said. “But this sort of thing eclipses that in such a way that can’t be described. This is so much more important. These conversations are what it’s all about. And as cliché as it may sound, it’s the best part of our job to be given a platform to share some of this information and to have the resources to effect change. It is bigger than basketball.”
Then, he told the students: “Lives will be saved because of your bravery in these moments. Don’t let it end here.”
X: @ESefko
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