Cabell Huntington Hospital organized “Light it up Pink,” a lighting ceremony at the Edwards Comprehensive Cancer Center Oct. 1 to mark the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness month. Over 60 people attended the event, including several patients, survivors and doctors at the hospital.

Kevin N. Fowler, the president and CEO of Cabell Huntington Hospital, and Paula Pasley, a breast cancer survivor from the hospital, flipped the switch to turn on the pink shaded lights. There were also pink glow lights passed around to each person who attended the ceremony, and after a moment of silence for those who died from breast cancer, the crowd was instructed to snap the pink glow lights in their memory.

“The ceremony was a proud moment for many as witnessed by the survivors in attendance,” Fowler said.

Fowler said the event will be continued every year and more lights will be added across the base of the hospital.

The lightning ceremony symbolized Breast Cancer Awareness month, and for the entire month of October the hospital will be lit pink.

“As a breast cancer nurse and having worked with breast cancer patients from diagnosis through treatments in the past, I was thrilled that the hospital has taken this step in behalf of breast cancer,” said Gigi Gerlach, a nurse and retired breast navigator at the Edwards Comprehensive Center. “Hopefully it will remind other women to make time for mammograms and to participate in preventative health. I am proud to be part of this first and positive step to turn our town of Huntington into something positively pink.”

Chelsey Stanley can be contacted at [email protected].