A Claflin graduate has taken the advanced cervical cancer thatleft her barren and used it as an inspiration to become a nationaladvocate in the fight against the world’s second-leading cause ofcancer.

January is Cervical Health Awareness Month, and Tamika Felderhas given her life to communicating with others about the risks andprevention of cervical cancer.

Felder, a 1997 graduate of Claflin College, where she majored inEnglish with a concentration in mass communications, is founder ofTamika & Friends inc., a national nonprofit organizationdesigned to raise awareness about the disease and its link to thesexually transmitted disease human papillomavirus, or HPV, througha network of survivors and their friends.

In January 2005, the Summerville native launchedtamikaandfriends.org as a conduit through which women can tap intosurvival stories, and learn about screenings and other preventionmeasures for cervical cancer.

The South Carolina Lowcountry Chapter of Tamika & FriendsInc. is now set to hold its second annual 5K Cervical Cancer andHPV Prevention and Awareness Walk in the state under the theme”Walk to Beat the Clock.” The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 1p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15, at Azalea Park on South Main Street at West5th South Street in Summerville, beginning at Cuthbert CommunityCenter. Participants can register online atwalktobeattheclock.org.

“I’m hoping my Orangeburg family will come out and support it,”Felder said. “We’ve done this walk successfully since 2007 in NewYork and Washington, D.C. It was exciting to bring it to SouthCarolina last year. The walk is in honor of my mother, who was mycaregiver. Caregivers are very important to survivorship. Withoutmy mother and my support team, I would haven’t have made it.

“The cost of the walk is $10. That’s really to help cover thecost of it, and most of the money we raise will go back intoeducating women in the state of South Carolina. if someone can’tafford $10, come out anyway. It’s going to be a good time.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that atleast half of sexually active women will have HPV at some point intheir lives. there are approximately 376 newly diagnosed cases ofcervical cancer in the state every year. South Carolina ranks 14thin the nation in cervical cancer deaths, with approximately 116women dying from the disease annually.

Felder said it will be announced during this year’s walk that ahealth fair and activities to promote awareness and education ofother cancers will be planned for the 2012 event.

“We’re still focused on cervical cancer in 2012, but there willalso be a cancer prevention fair and we’re going to start to dothings to promote other cancers,” she said. “It was really laid onmy heart this year to do that. We’ve had so much cancer in ourcommunity, especially people of color. we just have to help preventit and make sure it’s on people’s radar.”

Felder said going to the doctor for annual Pap tests had notalways been on her radar. She said when she first moved to themetro area of Washington, D.C., she didn’t go the doctor and had nohealth insurance. She wasn’t sick or feeling bad at the timeanyway, she said.

A disease in which abnormal cells in the cervix grow out ofcontrol, cervical cancer can be detected by a Pap test. During Paptests, doctors scrape the cells from the cervix to examine themunder a microscope and detect the presence of cancer, potentiallycancer-causing changes, noncancerous infections orinflammations.

“I didn’t have insurance. I said, ‘Why spend money if nothing iswrong?’” Felder said. “But had I gone to the doctor, they mighthave been able to see that I had this virus that could possiblyturn into cervical cancer. I didn’t really have any symptoms.”

She was eventually diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer in2001 at the age of 25. She underwent radiation, chemotherapy and aradical hysterectomy resulting in the removal of her Fallopiantubes, cervix, uterus and the top half of her vagina. She is now astaunch advocate of women having regular Pap exams.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved an HPVvaccination for females 9 to 26 years of age to prevent cervicalcancer caused by HPV. Regular Pap tests are also recommended forall women starting within three years of when a woman begins sexualactivity or at age 21, whichever comes first.

“This disease has changed my life. I’ll never be able to getpregnant because of this disease,” Felder said. “I had no desire tobe a cancer advocate, but it just kept bothering me that thisdisease was just so common and no one was talking about it. April2011 will mark 10 years of me being a survivor. You’re lucky if youmake it to five. I want to make it to 20.

“Without sharing my story, I wouldn’t have been able to healfrom it. I know telling my story has helped people. That’s whatit’s about.”

Contact the writer: or803-533-5534.