Game I, Game II, Game On! For Dickerson, Cancer Warriors

When Marci Dickerson sees a problem, she either finds a solution or creates one.

That’s true for Dickerson as the owner of The Game and Game II restaurants and Dickerson’s Catering  -- including finding ways to keep her businesses open and all her employees paid during COVID, and helping other businesses do the same – founding three nonprofits, raising money for the NMSU baseball team her older son plays for, getting involved in local politics – and in her own battle with breast cancer.

Dickerson’s cancer was discovered in August 2022. She underwent a biopsy which confirmed cancer and a double mastectomy last November (five total surgeries, November-May), followed by four rounds of chemotherapy – with Dickerson reporting on each one live on social media from her chair at the Memorial Medical Center (MMC) Cancer Center in Las Cruces.

Through it all, she never missed a day’s work or an Aggie baseball game or a gathering of The Association (the nonprofit she founded with Sumer Rose-Nolen to encourage young women entrepreneurs), or a fundraising project of Revolution 120, the foundation she created to “change the way Las Cruces gives.”

The last round of chemo was in April, her hair is growing back and Dickerson, 47, is cancer free.

“My battle with cancer was not nearly as severe as so many others,” Dickerson said. “I believe God gave me enough cancer to experience the hardships and shortcomings of our systems that deal with cancer. But He didn’t give me so much that I would have been too sick or too exhausted to create the solution that was Cancer Warriors.”

A lunch event she hosted (and catered) at the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in April raised $220,000 for the new nonprofit – “the single largest one-event fundraiser in the history of Las Cruces,” Dickerson said.

“The outpouring and generosity of this community is so overwhelming,” she said. “Our community truly cares.”

Dickerson credits her doctors and nurses, including X-Ray Associates of New Mexico in Alamogordo for the rapid diagnosis, doctors Kamali and Abuerto for the surgeries and MMC Cancer Center for the treatment -- “amazing people who did an amazing job,” she said. “I was truly blessed.”

But, as her treatment progressed, Dickerson saw a need – and a way – to help others “to make the journey of cancer suck less,” she said.

Dickerson is determined to make the fight against female cancers “more efficient and less chaotic,” she said, including more mastectomies and hysterectomies and other preventative care, so there are “fewer places for female cancer to land.”

“Faster better” is the goal, she said.

One of the things Dickerson and the other six founders of Cancer Warriors are working on for Cancer Warriors is a resource guide for women dealing with cancer.

For example, after a mastectomy, patients are told not to raise their arms or bend over for about two weeks or get the surgery site wet.

“How am I supposed to wash my hair?” Dickerson said. “This is a huge problem for a lot of people.”

Dickerson said a hair stylist friend helped her out, but “others have no solutions.”

Ways to find people who can help – posting a request on social media, for example – will be part of the resource guide, she said.

It will also tell cancer patients what to expect in their treatment and recovery; how to deal with X-rays and CT scans, chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and potential nerve damage; and how to advocate for themselves before, during and after treatment, Dickerson said.

The guide will also include referrals to other programs to help pay bills and find support groups and other resources.

Cancer Warriors is a program that supplies gift baskets for patients at each stage of the cancer journey.   Some boxes will include items like mouthwash, socks and neuropathy gloves. Cancer Warriors boxes should be available in Doctors offices by August, she said.

“Doctors and nurses are there to save your life,” Dickerson said. “Cancer Warriors is there to help keep you out of the chaos.”

Visit www.facebook.com/cancerwarriorslc.