DETROIT – She uses her voice every day as the program director for Mix 92.3 and on-air personality. Now, she’s using her voice for the greater good. This week in Your Neighborhood, meet Cheron Sanders, A true “shero.”
You hear her every day on Mix 92.3, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. “Ya Girl Cheron,” as she’s known on the air, is also the founder of Cheron’s Sheroes.
“The purpose of the foundation is to support women through their breast cancer treatment,” Sanders said. “Whether it be babysitting services, house cleaning, food delivery, transportation to treatments.”
Cheron’s Sheroes is a new non-profit supporting women battling breast cancer in the Metro Detroit area. Her website lists services and resources for women battling the disease. She said she knows first-hand the kind of support they need. She was diagnosed with breast cancer just a few years ago.
“I thought I was going to die,” she said. “I cried and I told my people I had to leave.”
She got the life-changing phone call while she was at work hosting an event, and she left immediately.
“I’m crying, driving in the rain, devastating, alone,” Sanders said. “It was awful. The first thing I wanted to do because my husband was at work is just drive to my babies, drive to my kids.”
The wife and mother of two caught it early. She had just turned 40 years old, and although she had no family history with breast cancer, she went in for her first mammogram. She was shocked by the results.
“It was the earliest form of breast cancer, which was a great thing,” Sanders said. “I was able to avoid radiation and chemo. I was not able to avoid a mastectomy and that was the most devastating part of the whole ordeal. Am I going to be whole after all this? How am I going to feel as a woman? I mean, I was married four years at that point. It was a new marriage, new babies. It was just a lot.”
Today, Sanders is cancer free. Cheron’s Sheroes was launched the year she celebrated three years as a breast cancer survivor. The non-profit means so much to her because it allows her to provide support for other women through their breast cancer journey out of her own pocket.
“It’s been a personal investment, all me,” Sanders said. “Like I said, I have added purpose to my life. It’s something I wanted to do. It’s something I needed to do.”
With support from her husband and mother, who were there with her every step of the way through her breast cancer journey, Sanders is giving hope to other women. She continues to push the importance of early detection.
“I want people to understand that breast cancer, mastectomy, chemo, radiation -- there is life beyond that, and you can feel even more of a woman even after going through all that, and for me I’ve added more purpose in my life,” Sanders said.
She wants to be able to help as many women as possible. You can help by sharing her website and social media channels so that she can reach as many women as possible. Click here for more information.