A Valley business owner is advocating for people diagnosed with breast cancer in a unique way - and it really has everyone saying, "Cheers!"
Don't be surprised if you spot a sea of pink this weekend in Chandler.
"It's like a big wave of pink people crawling from bar to bar," explains Darwin Wall, a broker at the Darwin Wall Team and founder of the Save Second Base Pub Crawl.
"I wanted to give back to the community but do something fun," says Wall.
And it's also something with a purpose - helping advocate for women in the Valley living with breast cancer.
"I hope it makes a huge difference. I feel like it does. The expenses are a lot. Insurance doesn't cover a lot. They always seem super grateful."
Gretchen Weidman e-mailed the ABC15 newsroom to inform us about this event. She's the 2024 honoree.
Weidman admits she had gone ten years without getting a mammogram. As a single mom and full-time hair stylist, putting herself first isn't always easy - and many women can identify with that.
"It was really tough," Weidman explains about getting diagnosed. "Your mind goes through all this like a movie - it going super fast on fast-forward and you're thinking about what it would look like to get really sick."
Weidman was diagnosed with Stage I breast cancer, but it had already started spreading to some lymph nodes. She would undergo surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.
Weidman admits losing her hair and the intensity of the chemo drugs were what scared her the most.
And in what can only be described in the hair stylist world as a "shear act of bravery," Weidman documented every step of the process of bravely saying goodbye to her hair.
"I had no idea I had a really nice scalp underneath there and so when that happened, I thought, 'I really like you with no hair'...I had to realize that didn't make or break me, if I had hair or not."
And cancer didn't make or break her either.
As Weidman marks one year since her diagnosis, the pub crawl is a chance for her to celebrate how far she's come.
"It gives me time to celebrate with people, to say, 'I don't have this anymore and that I can let go of it and really rejoice and I'm through it now!"
If you'd like to take part in the 11th Annual Save Second Base Pub Crawl this Saturday, Oct. 19, it's happening in Downtown Chandler. It goes from 12 to 7 p.m. For more information, head to SaveSecondBasePubCrawl.com.
