Cancer survivor Kathy Polk, shown above with her husband Don at World Pancreatic Cancer Day last year, is being recognized at this year’s Kickoff Party on Nov. 21By Lee Hurley
At the heart of silence is prayer.
At the heart of prayer is faith.
At the heart of faith is life.
At the heart of life is service.
– Mother Teresa
The Robert Reed Foundation will once again host an Iron Bowl Casino Kickoff Party to help raise money for gastrointestinal cancer research.
The event will be at The Club on Nov. 21. Expect to find casino tables, live music, an open bar, a cocktail buffet, a silent auction, a Denny Chimes wine pull – pick a disguised bottle and hope it’s worth a lot of money – and a Toomer’s Corner liquor toss – toss a ring onto a bottle and take it home,
Consider this, the money spent in revelry will fund critically needed GI cancer research. Nearly $2 million already has been raised, and much of that money has been doubled and redoubled by other grants. In other words, having fun saves lives.
The unpleasant truth about GI cancer – esophageal, liver, bile duct, pancreatic, stomach and colorectal – is that they are some of the most painful, debilitating and deadly cancers that exist. The GI tract is a 25-foot-long pathway that extends from the mouth to the anus. Everything we eat passes through, and tumors can and do form in these organs.
Circles of Life
The foundation, founded in 2002, is named after Bob Reed, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September 2000 and two years later died at the young age of 60. Reed was chairman and CEO of Johnson, Rast & Hays commercial real estate and RealtySouth. He graduated from high school at 16 and started college at Georgia Tech. After meeting his future wife, Carolyn, during the summer following his freshman year, Reed transferred to Auburn, where he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering.
The Reeds had two boys, Randy and Scott, and they, like many others, adored and respected their father.
“Dad was a principled man,” Randy Reed said. “He loved his family and was a tremendous role model for us.”
Reed sat his boys down one day to talk about the four interlocking circles of life. He drew it out on a piece of paper.
“Each of those circles represented 1. Faith 2. Family 3. Community 4. Career,” Randy Reed said. “He went on to share that our priorities needed to be in order and that all of those aspects of our life were interconnected.”
It’s not surprising, then, that the family began talking about creating a foundation to fund research while Reed was still alive, and both boys take pride from their dad having wrote the first contribution check to the foundation that ultimately would bear his name.
“Dad fought the good fight, and we never gave up during his journey. Our hope was rooted in our faith and in the phenomenal care dad received from Dr. Marty Heslin and his team at UAB,” Randy Reed said.
The Life We Save May Be Our Own
The foundation did something smart a few years ago. It created Faces of Cancer to humanize victims and emphasize the hard truth that GI cancer affects our friends, our neighbors, our families, ourselves.
If detected early enough, GI cancers are often treatable, and that message is one that can’t be shared enough. Just ask Dany Hollingsworth, whose affable husband, Jamey, started having symptoms about the time COVID arrived.
By the time he could get a proper diagnosis, he had stage IV colon cancer and 10 months to live. Dany Hollingsworth has partnered with the foundation and works to educate anyone and everyone about the need to get regular checkups and colonoscopies.
A Face of Cancer who will be posthumously recognized this year is Mike Rutledge, who succumbed to stomach cancer last August at 67.
Known for his faith, his love and dedication to his family, Rutledge faced cancer with a positive attitude.
“I enjoy every day. I don’t let the day drive me. I drive the day. You don’t take anything for granted,” he said, according to foundation material.
And then there is Kathy Polk, someone also being recognized this year who is very much still with us.
In 2021, Polk was having stomach and intestinal bloat and a chronic backache between her shoulder blades – all symptoms of pancreatic cancer – so she went to her doctor, who ran tests but did not find anything unusual.
Yet, he asked her to check back in six weeks if the symptoms persisted. They did persist, but it wasn’t until two years later that Polk finally connected the dots and got the right diagnosis. By then she had stage III pancreatic cancer.
Today, Polk has set three goals for herself, having already met the first by getting through chemo and Whipple surgery. Whipple is a complicated procedure that requires removing multiple organs, including the head of the pancreas and part of the stomach.
Her second and third goals are to reach her 70th birthday in December and to celebrate her 50th anniversary with her devoted husband, Don, next August.
Meet the Bradfords
George and Lois Bradford, who each lost a parent to cancer – lung and pancreatic – are also being recognized at the Iron Bowl Casino party in November.
George Bradford served on the board for years, while Lois Bradford served on the women’s committee, and they have put their money where their heart was. Son John Bradford and his wife, Ellen, both serve on the junior board, as well.
“The fact that we are being recognized is touching yet undeserved, but the cause is great and we want to do our part to gain support for the foundation and also educate those about GI cancer,” George Bradford said.
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
Medical professionals tell us the best way to defeat cancer is a healthy lifestyle, early detection and attention to one’s family medical history.
It’s important advice, yet sometimes all of these boxes are checked and we find it’s still our turn. Cancer is color blind, gender neutral and uninterested in net worth.
It’s at that point we realize how important it is to join together for a righteous cause.
Randy Reed sums it up, “Our dad would have so much satisfaction to see the overwhelming amount of support that has come from our community. There have been so many volunteers who put in hours and hours to organize and execute this event each year and so many who have shown generosity with their financial support.”
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