SCOUTING AROUND: Cancer survivors find adventure, pampering

    Ever since she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016, Kim Ponder wanted to try new things. She’s tried wakeboarding, gone flying in an open-cockpit ultralight plane and joined a dragon boat team.
    On Labor Day weekend, she visited the mountains of western North Carolina for the first time for the Knotty Girls Mountain Retreat.
    “It just sounded like a bunch of new adventures,” Ponder said.
    For the fourth year in a row, Diana Albritton brought six breast cancer survivors from Florida to her vacation home in Cherokee County to relax and reconnect. She took them hiking, horseback riding, fly fishing and kayaking.
    On Friday night, the ladies toured and shopped downtown Murphy while wearing their bright pink shirts after enjoying time in Andrews on Thursday afternoon. Albritton, a cancer survivor of 17 years, makes sure everything is taken care of for the ladies on the retreat, and brings three other staff members along – Kristy Harris, Yvette MacQueen and Cindy Jenkins – to help meet those needs.
    “This is so amazing what she does,” Ponder said.
    Karen Iafratto said she felt pampered. “We all live such busy lives, it’s nice to be taken care of,” Iafratto said. “I don’t have to worry about anything.”
    She said her favorite part of the visit was going to downtown Murphy, touring the Cherokee County Historical Museum and meeting local merchants. She enjoyed the hometown feel.
    Iafratto almost didn’t go on the retreat. As a 20-year cancer survivor, she had already participated in a lot of retreats and support groups, and thought she wasn’t as deserving as the other ladies. But a friend told her to go, and she took the opportunity to relax and offer support to the other ladies.
    She said the knot feeling that Knotty Girl promotes to help women identify lumps in self-exams is perfect. “That’s exactly what it feels like,” she said. “I just knew right away it was cancerous.”
    Still, it took 2-3 weeks of tests and waiting to receive her diagnosis. She said the hardest part was telling her mother since she was going through her own experience with cancer. She advised women to know their own bodies and know their own breasts.
    Ponder was one of the newer survivors on the retreat. She found a lump on her breast just before Mother’s Day in 2016.
    She already had her regular mammogram scheduled later that month, and waited until then to have it checked. At the appointment, she was asked questions before the exam, and told she would need a diagnostic test instead.
    On June 3, she found out she had Stage 2B cancer. A month later, she started chemotherapy. After she was told the cancer could come back, she decided to have a double mastectomy to prevent it. “I had already been through the ups and downs,” Ponder said, adding that her mother had appendiceal cancer in 2006.
    She said the support of her “amazing friends and family,” and eventually finding the Warriors on Water dragon boat team of breast cancer survivors, helped her through her struggles.
    Ponder drove to the mountains from Orlando with two other survivors, and enjoyed meeting them and sharing their stories as they travelled.
    “I have two new survivor friends,” Ponder said. “That was a cool thing.”
    She enjoyed getting to horseback ride for her first time in the mountains – it was a different experience than riding in Florida – and spending time at the waterfall at Turtle Town Falls.
    Ponder was grateful for sponsors – about half of which were local – for their support of the trip. “A lot of us would never have been able to do something like this,” she said. “The people who do this are special.”
    Local sponsors included Walmart of Murphy, Lowe’s of Murphy, Valley River Brewery, The Daily Grind & Wine, Andrews Brewing Co., The Bake Shop, Horseshoe Creek Riding Stables, Marketplace Antiques, Murphy Kayak Rentals, Parson’s Pub, ShoeBooties Cafe, Serenity Mountain Gift Shop and White Wolf Kayaking.

Hurricane delays substation opening
    Marble – The Valleytown Fire & Rescue Department was going to introduce the community to their new substation in Marble this weekend, but that got delayed due to their volunteers being needed elsewhere.
    Four volunteers from Valleytown and four from Murphy Volunteer Fire Department left on the morning of Sept. 4 and headed to Bladen County to assist emergency personnel there as Hurricane Dorian struck the North Carolina coast. The chiefs from both – Al Lovingood from Murphy, Justin Hyde from Valleytown – led the deployed teams.
    They were scheduled to stay a week, said Robin Caldwell, Cherokee County’s emergency management director. As Bladen County saw few effects from the hurricane, the Cherokee County teams were able to return home early.
    Caldwell said she was proud that local volunteer firefighters are not only willing to risk their lives for their neighbors at home, but were willing to leave their families for the week to help those on the other side of the state.
    “It’s a true testament to what our volunteer firefighters are willing to do,” she said.
    Caldwell said volunteer firefighters from other local departments expressed interest in helping, but to her knowledge no others were going. Fire departments may sign up to help during emergencies through the state fire marshal’s office, and the state reaches out to them if they are needed.
    The grand opening of the new Marble substation will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 19. Valleytown plans to provide free barbecue plates at the grand opening.
    The substation has been in use for about a month, said Shannon Silvers, training officer for Valleytown. It replaced a smaller substation that was in use since Valleytown started about 40 years ago. The new station has three bays, a full office, kitchen, bathroom, showers, two bedrooms and a variety of response vehicles.
    Valleytown also has a substation in Topton.
    “With the two substations and the main station, it helps for faster response times to get apparatus on scene,” Silvers said.
    The new substation is at 2160 Airport Road in Marble, next to The Oaks Academy and former substation.
    Samantha Sinclair is the Scouting Around columnist for the Cherokee Scout. You can reach her by email, scoutingaround@cherokeescout.com; or by leaving a message in the office at 837-5122.