Third annual Cancer Warriors Week begins Oct. 2

Now in its third year, the Cancer Warriors program is changing lives and bring hope to so many women looking for help.

The third annual Cancer Warriors Week kicks off Thursday, Oct. 2, and continues through Saturday, Oct. 11, with events throughout Las Cruces to raise awareness and money to fight women’s cancers. Most of the events are free, and all of them are open to the public.

“When breast cancer touched my life, I realized more could be done to make the journey of cancer easier for people in our community,” said Las Cruces business owner and Cancer Warriors founder Marci Dickerson, who battled – and overcame – breast cancer in 2023. “I am honored to be put in a situation where I can raise funds and develop programs to help others, which I wouldn’t be able to do without my fellow Cancer Warriors board members.”

Board members include Laura Pierce, Julie Gustafson, Roberta Flores and Kacee Benford.

Cancer Warriors Week has raised about $750,000 in its first two years, Dickerson said, and should pass the $1 million mark with this year’s events. The money raised stays in Doña Ana County and where it is used in two primary ways. The Mammos to Answers program that Cancer Warriors started with Memorial Medical Center in 2025 connects women to MMC’s breast-cancer screening program, which has reduced the time it takes to get a mammogram to a breast-cancer diagnosis from three months to three weeks.

It also funds Cancer Warrior Boxes filled with gift cards and items for women receiving chemotherapy (the box includes a blanket, socks, personal hygiene items and nausea drops, plus a $50 amazon.com card); with surgery (the box includes a $150 gift card and a shopping list for things like a seat-belt pillow, drain shirt, drain slings and a front-zip bra); and with radiation treatment (the radiation box includes a $50 gift card, skin-care products and an aloe vera drink to help stay hydrated).

Part of Cancer Warriors’ mission is to “provide awareness and encouragement for women to get pre-screened,” Dickerson said. “Early detection makes such a difference in the level of treatment and severity of side effects. It’s so much easier to catch it early.  We want to help relieve fear and anxiety around screenings to prevent breast cancer and other women’s cancers. It’s a challenge we are working to meet,” she said.

This year’s events include Bras for a Cause (Oct. 9), which has a 1950s party theme and includes a live auction that raised $60,000 last year. There also will be a Warriors Week tailgate at the Oct. 2 NMSU Pink Aggie football game. The Pinkout Game (Oct. 3) event in partnership with Las Cruces Public Schools, Warriors Zumba (Oct. 4), Bingo for Boobs (new this year, Oct. 7), the return of Candles for Hope luminarias (Oct. 8), and Warriors Week 5K run and 1K walk (Oct. 11).

Major event sponsors include Memorial Medical Center, Mountain View Regional Medical Center, Pathology Consultants of New Mexico, Better Homes and Gardens Steinborn & Associates and Master Imaging.

“We are so grateful to our community for their continued sponsorship and support of Cancer Warriors,” Dickerson said. “Breast cancer has touched almost everyone, and we want to get as many people together during Cancer Warriors Week as possible, to share their journeys and spread the word about early detection and how we can help each other in the fight against cancer.

“I was so blessed because breast cancer had a minimal effect on me, but I know facing it – the fear and the treatment – can be physically and emotionally devastating,” she said. “Cancer Warriors’ goal is to raise money, spread awareness and provide resources for those navigating the tough terrain of cancer in our community.”

For more information, visit facebook.com/cancerwarriorslc or text Dickerson at 575-644-0778.

This is the first in a two-part series on Cancer Warriors. Next week’s story will provide more details on Warriors Week events.