Breast cancer survivors inspire hope through service

HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — As Breast Cancer Awareness Month wraps up this week, survivors continue their journeys. Some of them are turning their experience into hope for others.

Santos Ramos has been a volunteer at Valley Baptist Medical Center Hospital since 2019, serving in pastoral services and on the Medical Arts Pavilion team.

After a routine checkup, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Despite the painful treatment process, Ramos says she leaned on her faith and remained committed to her volunteer work.

After months of treatment, Ramos received the news that she was cancer-free.

She now uses her own story to pour into others while volunteering, hoping to shed some light during their dark times.

“Because I go see patients, child of God, that they have the same thing I had, and I tell them… there’s hope. Don’t give up. There’s hope,” Santos said. 

Another breast cancer survivor, Robin Farris, says her journey with the disease gave her an urge to begin volunteering.

After overcoming breast cancer, Farris decided to join the hospital volunteer team this year.

She asked to be assigned to the golf cart team, as she knows what it feels like to have to walk long distances to receive treatment.

She says this role allows her to encourage her passengers.

“When I pick up someone and they say, I need to go to the breast center, that gives me an opportunity to say good for you, do whatever it is that they say,” Farris said.

Both women say they are thankful for the opportunity to share their stories with those who may be going through a similar situation.

They both expressed the importance of awareness and how, if it were not for keeping up with their annual mammograms, their stories could have gone very differently.

Their message to women in the Rio Grande Valley is to take preventative measures seriously, as it could save your life.