Pink Ball's Goal is To Raise Money to Help Trio of Moms Battling Cancer

Last year, the MetroWest Boot Camp held a Pink Ball to raise money to help a trio of moms battling cancer. The event raised enough money to present the Burke, Diaz and Osgood families with $3,000 each, said Boot Camp Owner and Community Outreach President Kristen Houlker.

The success of last year's Pink Ball encouraged MetroWest Boot Camp to plan and organize the 2nd Annual Pink Ball on Friday, June 13 at 7 p.m. at 2 Watson Place in Saxonville.

Tickets are $30 each and can be purchased at http://www.metrowestbootcamponline.com/pink-ball-tickets/

Ticket includes 2 drinks (beer & wine) from the cash bar, food from local restaurants, DJ, silent auction, photo booth and a fun night of dancing.

This year's event will benefit Julie Cowern, Jayme Robertson and Jess Ward.

Robertson attended graduate school for deaf education in Massachusetts after being raised in New York City. She lives locally with her husband John and their daughters Olivia, 6, and Sophie, 18 months. When she is not battling cancer, she is a respected teacher in the early childhood center at the Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham, where she has a worked for 14 years.

She found her cancer while breastfeeding Sophie and after the series of biopsies, mammograms, ultrasounds and question marks that most breast cancer survivors can relate to, she was diagnosed with a stage 2 breast cancer. She continued to breast feed right up until she started her chemotherapy, even surprising the staff at St Elizabeth’s/Dana Farber by requesting a breast pump in the recovery room after her mastectomy. Her cancer is quite aggressive and thereby so is her chemo. She is enduring some grueling treatments now and for the next 14 months, and with dwindling sick time and the expenses of cancer adding up, this absolute warrior is such a deserving honoree. 

Cowern, a 40-year-old mother of two adventurous young boys and her husband live in Ashland. She is a kindergarten teacher in Medway on medical leave while focusing on her battle against breast cancer. She found her lump in July 2013, by chance, just scratching a typical itch and noticed something wasn’t right. After many pokes, prods, and tests, on Aug. 16, she found out she had stage 2 breast cancer. She has had a tough journey so far with several surgeries, chemo, radiation, and more surgeries to come. On many occasions she may have felt too tired or sick to even get out of bed, but she has stayed strong for her family, and has never let them down. 

Ward, 37, is a nurse, a mother, a wife and is battling stage 4 terminal cancer. Since Thanksgiving, when the Boot Camp held a fundraiser for Ward, she married her boyfriend Scott. 

Ward, who grew up in Natick, has two daughters from a previous relationship, and now lives in Ashland. In July 2013, she found a lump the size of a lemon in her breast. Her initial diagnosis was stage 2 breast cancer, but the cancer is an aggressive form and quickly spread to her liver.