COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — Thursday morning, bus drivers and aides with Richland School District One took an honorary walk together in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The morning started with a group picture, as around 50 participants show up and show out for their 2nd Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Walk. Dressed in pink, the group makes multiple laps around the buses stationed at the Student Transportation Office on Wilson Boulevard in Columbia to recognize both survivors of breast cancer, and those who lost their battles. “I have a sister and a sister-in-law in remission of cancer and they are doing very well also. I had another sister with cancer but she’s deceased now, but my other sister, she’s been in remission I think almost 20 years,” says Linda Kelly, Bus Driver of 30 years. According to the SC Department of Public Health, breast cancer remains the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women, and is the second most common cause of cancer death among women, next to lung cancer. “The biggest thing about today is God just let us be in the mix of being able to walk and talk about cancer survivors. We have a lot of cancer survivors on our job, but some of them are not here today. But we just love them. This is our 2nd annual event for doing breast cancer awareness and we just love it, and we just love North Main family and Lower Richland family too, and we’re just enjoying this today,” says Kelly. Janie Lee has been a bus driver for 25 years. She had a biopsy taken the previous week and received negative results. While Janie says she’s thankful for her healthy report, she continues to think about everyone else affected. “We’re just going to continue to pray for our females and ones dealing with this problem, and we just want to continue to keep walking, keep the faith, and keep the hope,” Lee says. In South Carolina, DPH reports that nearly two-thirds of those diagnosed, discover the disease at an early stage. And when caught early, a 5-year relative survival rate of breast cancer is reported at 99%. Categories: Local News, News Tags: Breast Cancer, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Bus Drivers, Janie Lee, Linda Kelly, richland school district one