Cancer Awareness Poker Run: Raising Awareness & Remembering Friend

One mother, wife and friend is making a huge difference 2 1/2 years after she passed away.
Joyce Harrison had breast cancer, but didn't detect it early.

Joyce's friends, neighbors and family on Tybee Island continue to come together to spread the word about the importance of early cancer detection and to raise money for others who may not be able to afford a mammogram.

“Best hand, worst hand and then luck of the draw,” says Beth Martin.

Beth Martin is one of Joyce’s friends and an organizer of the Joyce Harrison Memorial Poker Run. She explains the deal to all of those who are coming out to the poker run on this sunny Sunday.

"9 of clubs but we're feeling good about it, possible straight," a player shows his hand.

This pack of Joyce's friends have been participating since the beginning. 3 years ago, there were just 30 or 40 bikes. Now, there are more than 100 riders.

"I think it's great. It's wonderful, taking a tragedy and turning it into something positive is always wonderful," says Glenn Conway, one of Joyce’s friends and a poker run participant.

“It's fantastic and I think too even people, not everybody knows Joyce or knew Joyce so, everyone's been affected by cancer so they're coming in honor of someone that they know who's battling it now or someone who passed away," explains Martin.

Josh O’Brien and his daughter, Riley are new to Tybee. They're riding to remembering some of their friends who've had cancer.

"It doesn't matter what your color, race or creed is. Cancer affects everybody,” says O’Brien.

There may only be 3,500 people who live on Tybee in the off season, but by seeing how many people come out to show their support for Joyce and to raise awareness about cancer, it lets you know how close everyone really is.

It doesn't matter if these neighbors win, lose or draw. What matters is being together, remembering, and raising awareness for early cancer detection

“It's just a wonderful thing. Tybee is a close knit community, they come together and they support their own," adds Conway.

If you didn't make it to the poker run on Tybee today, you still have time to go out and show your support. There's an oyster roast, raffle and live music, the band Nickel Bag of Funk, all going on right now at Huc A Poos on the north end of the island. Tickets to the oyster roast are $10.

I’m there and will have a wrap up of the Joyce Harrison Memorial Poker Run and oyster roast tomorrow night on News 3 at 6.

All of the money raised at the Joyce Harrison Memorial Poker Run will stay here locally. It will be donated to the Lynn Bishop Mammography Fund, which is for women who either can't afford a mammogram, whose health insurance won't cover the procedure or do not have insurance.

A mammogram is close to $100, and then depending on the treatment plan, it can cost $15,000 – $70,000.

"A lot of people don't go because they're worried about once they have the mammogram what other bills will happen from there and then I think really our whole team as I was mentioning works together and tries to help them find cancer state aid or find some way to pay for that treatment once we do figure out if it was a cancer diagnosis," explains Jennifer Currin-McCulloch, a social worker at the Anderson Cancer Institute at Memorial Health.

"If there's funds out there to pay for one, the reason to not get one should not be I don't have the money because it's what keeps us one step ahead,” says Lynn Bishop, a cancer patient and cancer conference coordinator at the Anderson Cancer Institute at Memorial Health.

For more information about getting a free mammogram at Anderson Cancer Institute, call the breast imaging center at 912-351-5101.

Click here to watch a story with Joyce's family. They talk about the importance of early cancer screenings and what it means for the community to come together and remember Joyce.