VERSAILLES, Ky. — Anyone who’s battled cancer knows the journey is difficult.
That’s one of the reasons why a Woodford County group honors cancer survivors and those who’ve lost their lives to the disease: all in a unique way.
What You Need To Know
- For 30 years, Woodford County American Cancer Society puts up a Love Lights A Tree
- The decorated Christmas tree honors names of cancer survivors and remembers those who've died
- Cookie Eaves is a breast cancer survivor
- However, she knows many whose lives have been cut short by cancer
It’s called Love Lights a Tree and Cookie Eaves places names on a Christmas tree inside the Woodford County Library. Next to her, the Woodford County High School students played Silent Night.
“My brother was the first one to go up,” Eaves said.
The tree includes her brother’s name written on an angel. He died this Feb. of cancer.
“Started in his lungs and then it spread and it was bones and he fought it for a long time,” Eaves said. “And they gave us hope at first but when they told him that his whole body was lighting up like a Christmas tree with cancer. We knew that there wasn't any hope but he enjoyed life."
Eaves said it’s a horrible disease that’s claimed the lives of so many loved ones in her life.
"I love the ones that are surviving but the ones that mean the most amazing people I've lost because it hurts me so much that we lost them and so many of them were young," Eaves said.
She’s a survivor herself, now breast cancer-free for close to two decades.
"It's taken so many people that we love them as well. We keep fighting and we keep hoping and praying that there will be a cure when these days and I truly believe that," Eaves said.
That belief is the driving force to honor the names of those who've died and the survivors for Love Lights a Tree.
"It is a horrible disease. The Santa Clauses do bring me joy," Eaves said, back at her home in Versailles.
She decorates for the season, celebrating Christmas this year without her brother.
"I wish that I could say that cancer leaves my mind, but it doesn't," Eaves said.
She knows dear people in her life who've had a different fate like her daughter’s in-laws — who gifted a Santa Claus figurine she displays each year.
"They both died from cancer so, so I love it and it’s a reminder of how special they were. And I do try to honor them each time on Love Lights a Tree and Relay for Life," Eaves said.
She and her friends fight cancer each day, raise awareness and support in any way they can so researchers get close to finding a cure.
The Woodford County American Cancer Society chapter decorates the Love Lights a Tree each year going on for almost three decades.