Two-time breast cancer survivor brings a party to advocacy

Pamela Weems dazzled the room during a Pink Party fashion show. Photo by Azhae’la Hanson

By Azhae’la Hanson, Reporter
When Pamela Weems became pregnant with her youngest son, she noticed a lump in her breast and asked her primary doctor if she should be concerned. They told her no, that it was a swollen milk gland. It would dissipate in time.

Weems went on with her life. Three years later, when former Miss Minnesota Mary Kay Sanders passed away from breast cancer, Weems was again concerned about her lump. She went back to the doctor for a mammogram.

That same year, Weems was diagnosed with stage-four breast cancer.

“At first I never felt like nothing was wrong because my doctors had told me that nothing was wrong,” Weems said. “It was a very dark time for me.”

Weems was overwhelmed with a deadly disease she knew nothing about. She looked for support and was disappointed to learn there weren’t a lot of support groups for Black women with breast cancer.

She started her own support and advocacy group, the Pink Ladies, a collection of women committed to turning advocacy into a celebration. They push for early detection to stop misdiagnoses like her own.

Weems was not alone, Riona Berry, founder and president of the African American Breast Cancer Alliance, vividly remembers the climate of silence surrounding breast cancer within the Black community in the early '90s.

"In the Black community, most don't talk about the 'Big C.' We found out by a lady whispering it to you in church,” Berry said. “Too many of us were dying, and we didn't know why.”

After receiving $1,000 from the ANIKA Foundation, Weems, her mother, and daughter gathered together. Weems’ mother told her how proud she was of the work being done with the Pink Ladies. Photo by Azhae’la Hanson

It isn’t just a lack of awareness in the Black community, she said, but also racial disparities in health care that creates righteous distrust. This creates a perfect storm for an epidemic for Black women who are dying from breast cancer.

According to a study done by the American Cancer Society (ACS), white women are diagnosed with breast cancer more than any other group, but Black women are 40 percent more likely to die from the disease. It’s a statistic that hasn’t changed in decades. The study also revealed that Black women younger than the age of 50 had a death rate that is twice as high as white women.

It was this alarming lack of awareness and discussion that drove Weems to start the Pink Ladies, aiming to shine a light on the disease that was silently claiming the lives of women around them.

“After I'd gone through my surgery and chemo, I wanted to be a part of awareness because I didn't want any other women to go through what I had gone through,” Weems said. “I survived. And I felt that my purpose was to get the word out.”

For Weems, the question was, "What is a better way to combat a silent killer in the Black community?"

The answer was clear – make some noise.

Before her diagnosis, Weems was a beauty consultant at Dayton's and a well known event-promoter. By day she would help customers reach their beauty potential and by night, she placed flyers on every car and store window to bring troves of party seekers into venues with big artists.

Weems leaned on these foundations in forming the Pink Ladies. October, which was Breast Cancer Awareness Month, also happened to be the 10th anniversary of the Pink Ladies.

Weems helps fluff out the afro of another Pink Lady, Shondra Dickson, before the start of a Pink Party. Photo by Azhae’la Hanson

The Anika Foundation hosted a Pink Out Party in honor of breast cancer awareness month and had the Pink Ladies as honored guests. Weems could be seen helping her fellow Pink Ladies with their signature outfit: Pink makeup, pink custom t-shirts, and their pink afro that is so iconic, it has stopped traffic while they’re out in public

“The party is all about that,” Weems said. “Because if you're having a good time next thing you know, people are interacting and they're talking. It's all about giving a space for people to feel safe and talk about breast cancer.”

Some women at the event shared their stories of their first doctor visits with concerns about lumps or pain in their breasts. The distressing commonality: Doctors were dismissive of their concerns, told them it wasn't cancer, and they had nothing to worry about because they weren’t 40 years old.

During a panel, the audience was asked if they know anyone who has been impacted by breast cancer and several hands shot up. Photo by Azhae’la Hanson

These women grew frustrated when it felt like doctors ignored their pleas. So they joined the Pink Ladies so they could listen to each other. Through the support of other women in their lives, after going back, all of them were diagnosed with breast cancer. Recently, they achieved an important milestone by obtaining an LLC and were honored at a recent Vikings game for their work as hometown heroes.

“We need people like her [Weems],” said her daughter and Pink Ladies Vice President Tadaci Johnson. “I started giving myself breast exams because of her, I started telling others to because of her. Her advocacy could be saving lives.”

The venue was decorated room to room with pink and was filled with laughs one moment and tears the next.

A fashion show was also incorporated into the night, one of the shining stars of the show was Weems herself, dressed in a handmade jumpsuit by Minneapolis-based fashion designer Neekmolac. Weems confidently strutted down the runway with a bright smile and spectators were in awe.

“When I first found out about my diagnosis, a part of me died inside. You hear the word cancer and you immediately think of death. And for a moment I thought that was it for me. But then I came back to life,” Weems said. “For as long as I’m around I’ll keep the party going.”

The Anika Foundation awarded Weems $1,000 for programming. Weems says she currently has other projects in the works, such as Rebel With A Cause, a kid’s food shelf for families affected by cancer in honor of her grandson.

To the people reading this, Weems says “Check yourself before you wreck yourself, and take care of each other.”