Cancer is a battle that millions across the world face every single second, minute and day. According to the American Cancer Society’s “Fast Facts Cancer Treatment and Survivorship Statistics for 2025,” 18.6 million people in the United States had a history of cancer, 1 in 18 of Americans as of Jan. 1 of last year.That number is projected to exceed 22 million by 2035.
For Leslie Mathis, president of the nonprofit organization, State of Opportunity of NC, he’s seen it up close.
“I know personally, I have some family members that did pass away and I have some family members and loved ones that are taking chemotherapy right now,” Mathis said. “So it was heavily on my heart, for me to do this walk. One is my son’s mother, she’s battling right now and I’m praying hard. If God doesn’t deliver, at least let her have an accompany walk in life and enjoy life and not worry about cancer. I’ve seen miracles too, my mother had it when I was about 11 or 12 years old. I just remember my mother every day when we came back from church, we went to church Monday through Sunday. Every day we went back home, we’d be on our couch and my mother was praying and praying. They told her she had about three months I believe, to live. My mother is now a much older lady, I seen the miracle that God did to heal her body. The doctor said he couldn’t find the cancer and we thank God for that. To this day, that’s something that I know God can provide, he can heal. I seen that as a child and I believe it now.”
The State of Opportunity NC is hosting the Healing and Hope Walk, a faith walk against cancer. The walk will take place at Sampson Community College’s track on Monday, April 6, from 6-7 p.m.
”God gave me a vision to take a walk against cancer, all types of cancer,” Mathis explained. “I took the vision that he gave me and said, ‘let’s walk it out.’ Walking it out was exercising, while also having literature out there, so people can be more aware of how cancer is affecting our body and our bloodstream. I decided to get with my team to talk to them and show them the vision that God gave me. Knowing someone, praying for someone, praying for a loved one. It could be mothers, wives, husbands, it could be anyone that has cancer. We’re going to walk around the Sampson Community College track that they have, spiritually walk and pray for the ones that we know that have family members that are going through it, we might be going through it ourselves.”
Mathis feels that this could be the start of something that continues on, not just focusing on cancer, but other diseases and health complications.
“For me to do this walk, to try to do one at least once out of the month,” he said. “This one is for cancer, next month would be against diabetes, next month after that would be MS (Multiple Sclerosis). Then the next month would be whatever God places on my heart, but this is probably going to try to be a continuous thing and it does unify and brings us together. We identify with the loved ones that have cancer and the ones of friends that we know that might have it too. I see that there’s a lot of people that are going through this and they need support.”
Unifying with love is a major point.
“The key thing is that we need to unify with love, regardless of how we feel,” Mathis pointed out. “It’s the spirit of our God inside of us that allows us to love each other. It’s not us, because we could get angry and not love. But when it comes to something like cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure, you have to go past yourself and love that person because they need it. This is the time of the season of life that we all have to come together and love. That’s all I’m bringing, everything that I do from this faith walk, to anything that you see. I wanna stand for Christ and show the love of Christ. That’s what I wanna show. I want to show the love of Christ and get the believers together. For the ones who don’t believe, come out (to the walk) so we can all become believers. To believe that there is still true love still out there.”
The faith walk within itself could help bring those together that were perhaps going through it on their own.
“Nobody wants to be alone in situations, no one,” Mathis emphasized. “No one will want to face a battle by themselves, and if someone has already went through it, they could turn around and help somebody else get through it. Because they went through it. This faith of walk, faith itself is something that you can’t see. It’s something that you have to believe in, it’s something that your natural eye can’t see. But with people who have been through it, their faith is stronger. That to me is the success and the key to life. Having people around you that are going through it scared, to come along and have somebody hold their hand and walk with them.”
The biggest thing that Mathis identified that the community can take away from the faith walk, he said, was hope.
“In everything that we do, no matter what the situation looks like, you could always have faith, and there’s always going to be hope. As long as there’s air in the body, as long as you’ve got people that will lead and got people that can follow behind. The takeaway is there’s still hope and there’s still love. That’s the most important thing I want them to know, that there is still love . There’s still people out there honestly and genuinely that all they want to do is love. They just want to give the love of God to the next person.”