ELLERBE — The community came together at the “World’s Largest Strawberry” Tuesday evening to help a young mother in her fight against cancer.
The Berry Patch hosted the event as a fundraiser for Alicia Honeycutt.
Honeycutt, who has a “wild” 9-year-old son and works in outpatient registration at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital-Richmond, was diagnosed in late January with mantle cell lymphoma in her head, neck and other areas of the body.
Mantle cell lymphoma is a “rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that arises from cells originating in the … outer ring of small lymphocytes surrounding the center of a lymphatic nodule,” according to the Lymphoma Research Foundation. It accounts for around 6% of all NHL cases in the U.S.
She first noticed a lump on the side of her face, which started out about the size of her finger tip and eventually grew larger.
“It hasn’t been painful, just awkward and uncomfortable,” she said.
Honeycutt started treatment at the end of February and said she will go through three more rounds until the end of April. After treatment, once she’s in remission, Honeycutt will go to a hospital in either Duke or Chapel Hill for a stem cell transplant.
Tuesday’s event featured music from Frankie Moree and Scott Infinger performing as Dark Horse Duo, face painting from Kim Kirkpatrick, and food from Max’s Millstone BBQ and Wildfire Pizza.
Kirkpatrick was taking donations, which she gave back to the cause, as did the band. Wildfire Pizza also donated 10% plus tips and the barbecue truck donated $400.
The Berry Patch auctioned off use of the large beach chair for $200 and rented the smaller chairs for $50.
With those contributions, in addition to a 50/50 raffle and donations from the crowd, Amy Berry said $2,000 was raised.
That total doesn’t include proceeds from the #TEAMALICIA T-shirts that were being sold.
“I do appreciate it very much,” Honeycutt said about the fundraiser, having missed a lot of work due to appointments and being out of paid time off. “This really came at an appropriate time.”
