October brings a sea of pink to billboards, t-shirts, stores and even the NFL. Talking about every aspect of breast cancer during a designated awareness month is impossible. Patients and health providers say each person's journey is unique. A common thread does exist among these individual stories: a tenacious fight against allowing cancer any control.
The women featured here refuse to relinquish their dignity, their decisions, and their lives to a devastating disease - and each manifests this perseverance in a different way.
SDPB's Kealey Bultena introduces Dakota Midday host Lori Walsh to six different women who all play roles in physical, mental, and emotional battle against breast cancer. Their photos are in the slideshow above, and you hear them in the following order:
Del Lomheim, Avera wig consultant
Karla Tuttle, breast cancer patient
Gloria Top, Sanford Health nurse navigator
Leah Rollag, breast cancer patient
Lu Rice, breast cancer survivor
Dr. Juliann Reiland, breast surgeon