Dancing For Our Heroes 2024

Dear Friends and Family,

Twenty years ago, Anderson University in beautiful Anderson, South Carolina, hired me as a faculty member to teach biology, genetics, and microbiology. Just before I began this assignment, I lost my dear mother and best friend to breast cancer. It was my mother who inspired me to pursue my Ph.D. at Clemson University and to enter into cancer research.

In the fall of 2004, I noticed a pea-sized lump had formed at the top of my ribcage and being a very conditioned runner in touch with my body, I knew this was not a situation to ignore or “wait and see.” One week after starting my exciting new job at AU, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. At that time, I had been married to my husband, Miren, for twenty years, and we had three young children. There was no thought of doing anything but fighting to overcome this hump in the road!

In addition to Anderson Area Medical Center, an established cancer treatment hospital (1984), I was blessed with a world-class medical team, including Dr. John Doster and Dr. Rajeev Malik. For a solid medical treatment approach to my cancer, I was indeed in the right place at the right time. As word of my cancer fight spread throughout the Anderson University community, friends and colleagues came to stand with, pray with, and otherwise support me and my young family as I fought this aggressive breast cancer.

One very caring faculty member told me about a new support group he knew of and encouraged me to contact the Cancer Association of Anderson! There, I found an incredible community of fellow cancer survivors equipped with information on additional and similar healthcare agencies, navigating appointments and very harsh treatments, prescriptions, and their side effects, and most importantly, friends ready to provide spiritual and emotional support for me and my family.

Thanks to the caring support of friends like Kathryn Smith, Angie Stringer, Andria Carpenter, and so many others, I made it through that difficult season, and this year, I celebrate being twenty years cancer-free, twenty years at Anderson University, and forty years married to Miren, the love of my life! Miren and I met on a cold January 8, 1984, morning in Croatia, and our love brought us to a different continent and a new world filled with friends who became our family.

Miren and I will dance on behalf of the Cancer Association of Anderson in the 2024 Dancing for our Heroes competition on Thursday, March 28, from 6:00 – 10:00 PM at the Civic Center of Anderson, 3027 Martin Luther Boulevard, Anderson, SC. The theme for the evening is Motown, and you will not want to miss this fund-raising opportunity. Our goal is $15,000.00, and every dollar we raise goes to the direct assistance of Anderson County cancer patients with services like transportation, prescription medication, integrative therapies, wigs, hats, medical equipment, and education courses. Additionally, the profit from this event will be divided among ten local Anderson County charities.

Tickets for the event (which are not included in the fundraising goal) may be purchased through the Dancing For Our Heroes website. Donations to honor Diana & Miren are accepted by mailing your check made out to the Cancer Association of Anderson with “Dancing for Our Heroes” in the memo line to 215 E. Calhoun Street, Anderson, SC 29621, or you may visit the CAA website at www.cancerassociationanderson.org. When you fill out the online form, note Dancing for Our Heroes! Miren and I will also collect donations at the dance.

Don’t miss this wonderful evening with a great floor show, live and silent auctions, and an opportunity for the audience to dance! Thank you in advance for your support!

Until Cancer is a Memory!

Your friend, Diana