Shippensburg University went pink as it held its Play4Kay night on Wednesday when the men’s and women’s basketball teams played host to West Chester for a night of basketball, honoring Kay Yow and the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
Fans wearing pink were granted free admission to the women and men’s basketball games and were given free rally towels.
The Kay Yow Cancer Fund was founded on Dec. 3, 2007 as a tribute to former North Carolina State University women’s basketball head coach. Kay Yow was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, and passed away on Jan. 24, 2009, after battling the disease for the third time. Before her death, she joined the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and the V Foundation for Cancer Research to form the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, a charitable organization committed to being part of finding cures for women’s cancers through raising money for scientific research.
With the creation of the fund, Yow hoped to raise money to further cutting-edge research led by some of the nation’s top doctors and medical experts to allow more and more cancer patients to have access to experimental drugs. Since the majority of these research projects are privately funded, these researchers desperately need our support in order for them to continue to find a cure for cancer.
Since the fund was founded, $5.2 million has been raised and $2.15 million has been donated for scientific research and related programs focused on women’s cancers.
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