Women’s Basketball: Firsthand Experience (Cajuns for a Cure)

Eric Narcisse, The Advertiser, February 23, 2013

Citing a need to continue to raise the level of awareness about cancer, head coach Garry Brodhead and the UL Ragin’ Cajuns women’s basketball program will host Pink Night in the Cajundome today at 5 p.m. when they face Western Kentucky in the home finale.

Brodhead knows all too well the seriousness of cancer and that it affects thousands of people every year, including members of his family including his wife Andrea, who is a breast cancer survivor and his grandmother, who he lost to pancreatic cancer during his college days at UL.

"For me, the effects of cancer goes back a long way," Brodhead said. "To know the amount of people in my family, in the community and around the world that have been affected by cancer, we just felt it is important for us to help raise the awareness about it. We see it and hear about it every day, so it is close to us all. The more you communicate about this disease the more you learn about it."

As a result, Brodhead and his staff decided to launch what they expect to be an annual event "Cajuns For A Cure" which is designed to help raise money for research and to enhance the level of awareness of people in the community.

The Brodheads had their worlds turned upside down almost one year ago when Andrea was diagnosed with breast cancer on April 20 only 19 days after their family celebrated Garry landing his dream job as the head women’s basketball coach at UL.

"It’s the scariest thing you can be told," Andrea said. "When they tell you that you have invasive breast cancer, the first thing that I thought was ‘I’m going to die.’ Hearing that you have cancer is something that you dread hearing. When you go to the doctor you hope that it isn’t cancer because the ‘C’ word makes you feel like you’re going to die."

Andrea Brodhead is in support of "Cajuns For A Cure" for the same reasons as Brodhead and everyone else that is on board so that she can help raise awareness and one day serve as a resource for someone who recently gets diagnosed.

"Of course when I was first diagnosed it felt like I had been punched," Andrea Brodhead recalled. "It really stopped me in my tracks. ‘How can this happen to me?’ After it sets in a little bit, I then asked ‘Why me?’"

Through conversations with others as well as prayer, it didn’t take long for Andrea Brodhead to realize that her involvement with women’s athletics gives her a large audience to spread to word about the importance of yearly mammograms and doctor visits.

"I definitely had to tap into my faith and spirituality," Andrea Brodhead said. "I felt the answer was that I’m come into contact with so many women and girls in basketball that maybe that was the reason. There’s a reason for everything and the reason I had to go through this was so that I could help with the awareness of cancer and educate people on the importance of not neglecting yourself and taking checkups seriously."

Everyone knows about cancer and how serious of a disease it is, but the importance of awareness according to the Brodheads is more about early detection than it is on the disease itself.

"The one key word in all of this is awareness," Andrea Brodhead said. "Before being diagnosed, I didn’t think about it. I had always thought about doing things such as the walks. Mammograms are important and I didn’t do mine every year. Not going one year, turned into two years and then three years of not having one. I never thought it would happen to me and once I was diagnosed, I began to wonder if we had detected it in time."

Garry Brodhead believes early detection is the key in the fight against cancer.

"Awareness is my thing," Garry Brodhead said. "I want people to know the importance of early detection. By talking about it, we may save lives through early detection."

For Garry Brodhead and the Ragin’ Cajuns "Cajuns For A Cure" is bigger than the game itself.

"There are a lot of great organizations that are fighting cancer and we just want to be part of it," Garry Brodhead said. "This fight against cancer is way bigger than any game we could play and there are no better people to fight cancer than Cajuns because we know how to fight through things."

Follow assistant sports editor Eric Narcisse on Twitter @tdanarcisse.