Colorful leis and large floral hair clips and the Caribbean beat of a steel drum band set the scene for Thursday’s pink ribbon luncheon. For the hundreds of men and women at the annual Tulsa Project Woman event, the Southeast Expo Center was an island of hope for survivors and for a cure.

The tropical theme was reminiscent of another event for Heather Cobb. She recalled an annual conference for breast cancer survivors who chose the color of their leis based on how many years ago they were diagnosed: White represents a diagnosis less than a year old, green leis are worn by women diagnosed between one and five years ago, and yellow and red leis are for those who have survived their cancers for 10 or 20 years. Orange leis, she said, are worn by the women whose diseases have already spread.

“They are walking around with metastasized diseases,” Cobb told Thursday’s Pink Ribbon Luncheon audience. “Those are the ones who have the disease that has spread to their brain, or their lung, or their liver, or their bone.”

The conference Cobb was talking about is for women under 40.

Thursday’s luncheon of chilled gazpacho soup, Jamaican jerk chicken and Key Lime pie by Chef Cindy Baggett was artfully presented along with flower petals and grass mat table centerpieces and glass carafes of water and berries of various shades of red. Diners listened to the McAlester High School Steel Drum Band, and heard about Tulsa Project Woman, which last year helped 2,300 Oklahoma women, including 136 from McAlester. Last year, the project’s education events about early detection and risk factors reached 3,100 women.

Carrie Kirkes was presented the Franke Rayburn Award. Kirkes is a breast cancer survivor and an advocate and supporter for local awareness and education.

The Franke Rayburn Award is given in honor of Rayburn, also a local breast cancer education and support advocate. Rayburn has been an advocate for more than 20 years, and helped start the local Relay for Life cancer fundraising event in the mid-’80s. Later, she herself was diagnosed with cancer. Last year, Rayburn was presented the High Plains Regional American Cancer Society Volunteer Lifetime Achievement Award.

After Kirkes was presented her award, Cobb shared her own story of losing her mother to breast cancer, and then her own two breasts, all before she turned 30. Her double mastectomy was followed by nine months of chemotherapy and radiation, and genetic test results that led to her decision for a hysterectomy.

She talked about the painful decision made by her own mother, when Cobb was in high school. Her mother decided to refuse treatment the second time she was diagnosed with cancer. She had suffered so much after her first diagnosis was made, in 1978, with the pain and nausea of treatment that she chose to succumb rather than try to fight it again, Cobb said.

That was 12 years ago.

Then Cobb found a lump in her own breast.

“I was diagnosed when I was 28,” she said. The second lump had emerged in the same spot and was diagnosed as cancerous. She decided on a double mastectomy.

“Because the fact is my cancer pathology could have been a carbon copy of my mother’s,” Cobb said. “Same spot, same kind, same pathology.”

She had hoped that sacrificing her breasts would have prevented the disease from invading her body. But tests of her excised breast tissue instead found even larger tumors, and cancer in her lymph nodes. So five years ago, as a new mother herself, she fought the disease with chemotherapy and radiation.

She acknowledges that most breast cancers are diagnosed in women over 40. But those who are younger are still at risk; breast cancers in younger women can be even more aggressive, making early detection and prevention even more important.

“There are a small minority of women diagnosed under the age of 30,” Cobb said. “There’s not a lot of us. I tell you that because I want everyone to know, this disease knows no boundaries.”

Contact Kandra Wells at kwells@mcalesternews.com.