Tawny Roeder of Omaha, a Nebraska Medicine nurse who works with patients with cancer, is the honorary chair of Nebraska’s ninth annual Lymphoma Walk.
The walk will be held Saturday, April 21, at Mahoney State Park. The fundraising event, which is hosted by the Lymphoma Research Foundation, will begin at 10 a.m. with registration at 9 a.m. at the park pavilion.
The Lymphoma Walk is a 5K fun-filled, non-competitive event that offers individuals and teams an opportunity to walk to support those whose lives have been touched by lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes. About 450 new cases of lymphoma are diagnosed in Nebraska each year.
Roeder was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2008. She was just finishing nursing school in Iowa when she was diagnosed.
“When I found out I would need a stem cell transplant, I moved to Omaha and it has been my home ever since,” she said.
Roeder had an autologous transplant on Sept. 11, 2008, at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha. In 2011, following treatment and recovery, she got a job at Nebraska Medicine as a registered nurse in the oncology unit and now she helps care for and manage patients who have transplants.
“For the past six years I have been able to work with many patients just like me, and all of the physicians who helped take care of me when I was sick,” Roeder said. “Being able to help others is a wonderful thing. Everyone going through cancer treatment wants to talk to someone who has gone through it and is doing well years later. I get to be that person for them. It’s amazing.”
Proceeds from the walk will benefit Nebraskans through research grants and patient services. To date, $600,000 has been raised through walk participants and sponsors.
Those interested in participating can start a team, join a team, sign up as an individual or make a donation, by going to the event website. For more information, contact Dana Bork at (402) 612-968-3757.
Lymphoma is a type of blood cancer that occurs when white blood cells that help protect the body from infection and disease begin behaving abnormally. Lymphomas are the seventh most common form of cancer and cause more than 300,000 deaths each year.