Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 26, 1995 TAG: 9509260023
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETH MACY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's the Monday morning after. There's a hint of a limp in Anthony Drakeford's walk, a gurgle of a grunt when he sits down.
Asked how he feels, the former Ferrum College football standout moans, ``Sore. I'm very, very sore.''
Just two nights before, he rushed 153 yards to lead the Roanoke Rush in winning its third game of the season.
You may wonder just why this 28-year-old with two day jobs spends three, sometimes four nights a week suffering hits to the head, blows to the body and muscle strains to, of all things, his groin area.
For absolutely no pay.
You may wonder why he's become close and personal friends with a bottle of acetaminophen, a heating pad, an ice pack and a physical therapist.
All for the glory of wearing one of Roanoke's inaugural minor-league football jerseys.
There's a motivator behind his madness.
Drakeford is a role model - a professional one. For three years he's worked two jobs, one through the city's Health Department, the other through Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge.
His goal is to lower Roanoke's teen pregnancy rate by teaching teens that early pregnancy can lead to a life full of shattered dreams. His subjects include sex education, decision-making skills, career development, self-esteem, manners.
He tries to connect with the kids, whether it's in an after- school classroom or on the basketball court. He emphasizes that extracurricular activities - the legal ones - can be a person's ticket out of poverty.
Above all, he tells them, don't be quitters.
``I'm always trying to get them involved in school activities and sports,'' he says. ``Some of my guys try out and then don't complete the season. And I'm trying to show them, `You need to stick with it.' ''
Drakeford knows many of his kids are in the football stands watching. It ups his clout and coolness factor - the professional role model playing the football star in his spare time.
And so under NO circumstances will he give up his new grueling third job. He has his reputation - and his words - to uphold.
He has to walk his talk.
``No matter how banged up I get, I'm not getting off that field,'' he says.
``I mean, they would literally have to carry me off with a broken bone.''
Several of you called or wrote in response to my recent column on the importance of doing monthly breast self-exams - and the almost-universal fear of finding a lump:
An 89-year-old Salem woman described her own experience of having both breasts removed after discovering a tiny spot during a self-exam. She encourages other women to trust their instincts.
``There's a feeling that you have that something is wrong, and don't ever dismiss that,'' she said.
A 78-year-old Blacksburg woman told of a mammogram that saved her life by detecting a malignancy in 1974. ``My sister had a lump in the '60s, and her doctor told her to just forget about it. She died from that lump.''
Dr. Arthur Frazier, a retired radiation oncologist, called to point out that the statistic - that one in nine women will develop breast cancer - applies only to women who reach the age of 85.
A 25-year-old woman's chance of getting the cancer is actually one in 21,441; a 35-year-old's chance, one in 622; a 45-year-old's chance, one in 96; a 55-year-old's chance, one in 34; and so on, with the odds sharply increasing with age.
Frazier believes the media overemphasizes breast cancer when women actually have a greater chance of getting heart disease and diabetes. ``Breast cancer's a hot topic now because the women's groups have played it up and because of society's fixation on breasts.''
And a 52-year-old Salem woman called to remind women that ``you know your body better than anyone else. If you find something, get it taken care of immediately.''
She had a mastectomy and chemotherapy after noticing a lump two years ago while undressing. ``I was one of those that did not do breast self-exams,'' she says. Her cancer has recently recurred in the skin tissue of her chest.
Told of the retired doctor's reaction to the column, the woman said: ``He needs to come to my breast cancer support group to see how many new women come each month. When you go and see new faces constantly, it's really scary.''
The highest incidence of cancer that women get is breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society, with 182,000 new cases diagnosed each year in the United States.
Breast cancer is the second leading cancer killer of women, behind lung cancer, with 46,000 dying from breast cancer each year.
Beth Macy's column runs in Tuesday and Thursday Extra. Her phone number is 981-3435 or (800) 346-1234, ext. 435.|
by CNB