On the first Wednesday of every month, you can find the group, "Many Shades of Pink" hosting a community health fair at the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA. The fair offers a range of services from free mammograms, vaccines, COVID-19 testing, to food distribution, among other services.
"Breast cancer doesn’t stop just because we are in a pandemic, people are having health problems and life-threatening diseases, it doesn’t stop," said Shurelds.
Wendy Shurelds is the founder and leader of the Many Shades of Pink Foundation providing support for women battling breast cancer and focusing on providing health care services to underserved communities.
"It’s a devastating thing to hear that you have breast cancer and when you hear that you automatically think you’re going to die, but I want to let everyone know that just because you hear the big C word it's not a death sentence," said Shurelds.
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A mission dear to Wendy’s heart as she was diagnosed with breast cancer in February of 2013.
"I am a survivor of eight years," said Shurelds. "My journey with breast cancer I didn’t have a lot of services that were offered to me, so for women of color, for Black women I wanted to help other women navigate through the system."
A big obstacle, however, is getting care, and having the access to critical services like mammograms can be limited for underserved neighborhoods often impacting communities of color.
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"We cry together, we pray together, we really try to be there for one another," said Shurelds.
She now champions her victory by helping others through her organization Many Shades of Pink which offers virtual support groups, fundraisers, and events.
"They're my family and we’ll always be survivor sisters," said Shurelds.
The monthly community health fair means so much to Shurelds that her hope is to have a mobile fair that can visit other communities that are in need of services.
The next community health fair is scheduled for March 2 at the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA, these free events are held on the first Wednesday of every month.
