At-Large County Council Member Calvin S. Hawkins II Hosts Breast Cancer Awareness Event With Edith P. Wright Breast Cancer Foundation

Story and Photography By Raoul Dennis

“I had never been sick before, I had never had any kind of surgery in my life. There was a little bump,” she said reaching toward the back end of her underarm. “They told me I had to go to [the] hospital and it was frightening and they gave me a lumpectomy at first. My hair fell out in a month. I was bald all over like a little baby,” Miss Andrea said.

Then it got worse – the treatment really began.

“In 2020 it really started getting heavy as far as the chemo. I couldn’t have anybody go with me…the doctors…the chemo… I had a few friends taking turns driving me to help out but I didn’t know about the help [for breast cancer victims] out there so I went alone. They dropped me off at the surgery door outside. And I went through three surgeries. [Finally] I had the single mastectomy. I got that done and 35 days straight of radiation so I was like a little burn victim. It was traumatic but I got through it because I had my family and friends. And I have a lot of new friends now because I’m part of the breast cancer family,” Andrea added.

**Prince George’s County At-Large County Council Member Calvin S. Hawkins II**

This was the story Andrea told in a cozy little nook of the county known as Nipsey’s Ft Cheers at 301 in Upper Marlboro as The Washington Commanders tussled on supersized TV monitors and guests clung to their pink ribbons and listened. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019 and she was calmly telling her life-altering story as if she were explaining the layout of a hotel lobby: listeners surely felt her pain but she didn’t seem to let the moment pain her, so they didn’t either.

It was Oct 30, one of the last days of the month dedicated to breast cancer awareness, and leaders like Calvin S. Hawkins II and Miriamm Wright McKinney refused to let the clock tick out without one more attempt to bring awareness of the disease and the fight to end it.

“The number of women and even men that are suffering from breast cancer,” Hawkins said when asked why the event was important to host. “We need to keep the awareness going. We need to ensure that we’re doing all we can -- not just to help those who are involved with breast cancer research and work but the underserved communities. We need to be Prince George’s Proud and committed to keep working with Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and my colleagues on the council to make a difference in this and do what we can to make sure every woman and man that needs a mammogram or support has the opportunity regardless of their insurance capacity.”

Miriamm Wright McKinney is founder and chair of the Edith P. Wright Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. The foundation is a support system for breast cancer victims and its owned and operated by Wright McKinney and her siblings in honor of their mother, Edith P. Wright.

“Edith Wright was my mom,” Wright McKinney says affectionately. “She fought and battled breast cancer and succumbed in 1982.”

At the time, the loss left a void in the family. Day to day life and basic family matters were upended all while the family grieved. It was a destabilizing loss that had few support systems at the time. “When my mother transitioned, she left a husband and four children in 1982. We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t have these resources.”

**Miriamm Wright McKinney and her sister Wendy Wright Johnson of the Edith P. Wright Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.**

I, along with my siblings, started the foundation. We established a foundation that provides support services to families facing breast cancer – including those without health care resources. That’s our mission. We provide transportation service, groceries, and cleaning, special events for survivors and their families just to provide that level of support.”

Founded in 1998, the organization is approaching its 25th anniversary in 2023. Wright McKinney says she believes Edith P. Wright foundation has served several thousand people since its start.

“It’s been four decades since [mom] transitioned but we live in her legacy,” Wright McKinney says just before taking the stage with her sister, Wendy Wright Johnson, who serves as CEO, “We love serving. We are cheergivers,”

Support, resources, family, friends, community, leaders: they sustain survivors like Miss Andrea these days. Her hair is growing back. Her smile is broad and inviting and her evening wear – a dazzling pink and gold flowing ensemble. She had all that she needed.

“I didn’t want to get an implant,” Miss Andrea said. “That would have been another surgery and I didn’t want to do that. I will be 60 next month. I’m good.” So was the applause.