Saturday morning Troy University‘s Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority walked one mile around the quad and held a balloon release in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“We have five different targets within our organization and our target two is women health care and wellness so that includes women health care all across the board,” says Alpha Kappa Alpha Vice President Gretil Sutton. ” Since this is October we felt that it was necessary to show support to those who have lost loved ones and also ones that are currently fighting and have loved ones that are still currently fighting and just show our appreciation love and support and also to bring awareness.”

The event’s honorary speaker was breast cancer survivor Jeanetta Byrd.

January will mark five years Byrd has been in remission, but Byrd didn’t come to the podium just to tell her story, she also came to share how she became a support system for her best friend who was diagnosed and then passed away from breast cancer just a few years later.

“Before she passed she knew when I was sad and depressed,” says Byrd. “I knew when she was sad and depressed. So we would just help each other. Sing, dance, just try to uplift and encourage each other. A lot of times the depression sets in and sometimes we feel like we don’t have anybody to talk to or bring that positive to us. So just stay positive.”

For the full story watch Amya’s report.