Caitlin Emma Photo
Fifteen-year-old Colleen Roy saw the ubiquitous pink ribbons during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but when she looked around her school, she realized no one was talking about it.
“Breast cancer has been around my family and I was a little disappointed that my school didn’t do anything about it,” said the New Haven Academy sophomore. “I felt like we needed something because it’s not something that gets talked about on a daily basis.”
So Roy went to New Haven Academy’s program director, Meredith Gavrin, and started planning. Her plans culminated in a school-wide cancer awareness week that kicked off Monday morning.
Lavender-colored shirts peppered the gymnasium as Roy took to the microphone. She and the committee she assembled began selling the lavender shirts recently for $10-$15. The lavender coloring represents general cancer awareness and Roy even went a step further — by adding some temporary purple to her brown hair.
“It’s another way to give back,” Roy said. One of her teachers currently undergoing cancer treatment also inspired her to rally the school, she said.
In addition to shirts, Colleen and her friends plan to sell cancer awareness ribbons and bracelets during lunch this week. The bracelets and ribbons come in a variety of colors, each representing a certain kind of cancer. All of the proceeds will go to the Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Sophomore Zachary Corolla has helped Roy organize the cancer awareness week. His grandmother was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and organizing the event has given him a chance to get active, he said.
“It was sort of serendipitous,” he said. “We live in a two-family home and I’ve watched this happen in front of me. Before I knew it, I’d placed 20 shirt orders with my family.”
Roy said the group has raised about $200 so far. In addition to raising money, Colleen also recruited speakers for the school-wide meeting.
She invited Kelly Turner Cole, a New Haven police officer who retired just four weeks ago, to talk about her battle with breast cancer.
“I’m alive and well today,” Turner Cole told the gym filled with about 250 applauding students.
Turner Cole was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer at age 36 in July 2001. Doctors found it during a routine mammogram and the news shocked her, she said. She underwent chemotherapy, radiation and a mastectomy before doctors declared her cancer-free about a year later.
With almost 10 cancer-free years and a 20-year police career under her belt, Turner Cole turned her full-time attention to her favorite project.
“What she’s done with these 10 years is what counts,” said Andrea Silber, Turner Cole’s former oncologist and an associate clinical professor at Yale University. Silber also spoke to the group of students Monday.
Turner Cole founded a not-for-profit in 2002 called The C.H.A.I.N. Fund (for Compassionate Hands Assisting Interim Needs). Her not-for-profit provides financial assistance to people who were forced to leave work because of cancer treatment.
Inspiration for the fund came when the community rallied around Turner Cole. She said the New Haven police department raised over $16,000 for her shortly after her diagnosis. The generosity overwhelmed her.
But while she felt blessed, she found others less fortunate. One day, Turner Cole ran into a friend also undergoing treatment at the clinic. The friend was in danger of losing the family car and couldn’t afford her son’s private education anymore. That chance encounter made Turner Cole want to protect others from cancer’s financial burden.
Since it began, C.H.A.I.N. has helped over 48 families and raised almost $260,000 to help pay mortgages, rents, utilities and prescription co-pays.
“Be the one,” Turner Cole told students. “You can be the one to make the difference in people’s lives.”
And it seems like Roy will continue to follow Turner Cole’s advice. Roy said she will make sure New Haven Academy holds a cancer awareness week through her graduation and long after she’s gone to college.
New Haven Academy Principal Greg Baldwin is on board.
“One of our missions is social action,” he said. “She’s done a great job with that. This has made me look into my own family to see how cancer has affected it.”