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Feature Stories

Liz Evans

by Michael Corey

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After a 34-year career in radio and television, Liz Evans has become quite adept at communicating with others. But of all of the news and views she's shared, none is more important than the importance of early detection of breast cancer--particularly for the African-American community.

"I realized that in my heart that no one in the African American community spoke out on breast cancer," she says, an epiphany she realized as she underwent chemotherapy treatments over the course of six months in 1991.

"I began to hear about African American women who were dying because they weren't getting diagnosed," she recalls. "They didn't have insurance, they had a fear of getting mammograms, a fear of going to the doctor--and the education was not there."

And so it was that Evans, along with eight friends and fellow survivors, founded the African-American cancer support group, an organization that has been supported by and developed a strong relationship with Komen Columbus The group has helped more than 2,000 women fight cancer since its founding in the early 1990s.

But when Evans was first diagnosed with breast cancer in January 1991, she was the one in need of assistance.

Five years earlier, her doctor noticed a tumor the size of a pea in her breast. He said they would watch it, gave her some estrogen and nothing more.

"I went back in 1988 and no one ever said anything to me about it, I never got any results," she says. "I just figured no news is good news."

She was finally diagnosed in 1991. A second-stage tumor had developed in her breast.

Surgery and intense chemo ensued, at a time when Evans was raising her 10-year-old grandson.

"That was kind of what gave me the initiative, I never thought about dying," she says. "From that point on it was him that I woke up for every day."

And once her battle was won, she traveled the country to thank her friends and family for all their love and support.

"I travelled by myself bald-headed, yes I did," she says. "It was the best thing I ever could have done for myself to get back and be able to live again."

And when she came home, she took up arms for those still fighting to live.

"I began to meet people with the Race….I learned a lot more that I never knew before," she remembers. "I learned more about women having breast cancer, trying to understand all of their challenges because it was devastating a lot of women. The year I had breast cancer in 1991 more women died in that one year then men in all of Vietnam."

Her organization, coupled with Komen Columbus, was a cathartic and effective way for her to bring those numbers down.

"Getting involved with Race for the Cure gave me another initiative to work toward that, to increase visibility toward all women not just a certain portion of women," Evans says.

There's no message more important than that.