Join Jacksonville’s Making Strides Walk this Saturday! Walk with survivors like Peggy Campbell-Rush and help raise hope, funds, and awareness for breast cancer.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville community will come together in a powerful show of unity and hope at the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk on Saturday, Oct. 18. For the first time, a nearly 30-year breast cancer survivor Peggy Campbell-Rush will be walking among them.
Campbell-Rush, a retired educator and mother of three, was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer at age 42. She underwent a mastectomy, lymph node dissection and aggressive treatment, all while raising young children.
“I just felt something jabbing in my right breast,” she said. “I came home, and my husband said, ‘You need to sit down for a minute.’ They diagnosed me with breast cancer and I was shocked. I could not believe it.”
Fifteen months after her diagnosis, Campbell-Rush’s mother was also diagnosed. Eighteen months after that, her father. All three are survivors who credit mammograms for saving their lives.
“The mammogram saved me. Saved my mom. Saved my dad.”
Now, nearly three decades later, she’s walking for the first time in the Making Strides event, surrounded by her family and fueled by purpose. She hopes her story reminds others of the importance of early detection and community support.
“The community means everything when you’re going through this, literally everything,” Campbell-Rush said. “Come out for yourself, your family, your community, because breast cancer touches everybody.”
The American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk raises funds for lifesaving research, early detection, and patient services. You can sign up online now.
This year’s walk will take place Saturday, Oct. 18, at a new location — VyStar Ballpark. Gates open at 8 a.m., and the two-mile walk begins at 9 a.m.