Lavar Jacobs had to go through the painful ordeal of watching his mom, Kim, lose her breast cancer battle as she passed away in 2009 at age 49, but her death sparked something in him, it’s been his dream to open a breast cancer, well now its reality! Jacobs on May 3, 2021, rewrote history by opening doors of the first Black-owned breast cancer center in Ohio!
According to AfroTech, the center named The Kim Jacobs Breast Cancer Center officially opened in an emotional grand ceremony.
“I’ve always had the vision of the Kim Jacobs Breast Cancer Resource Center,” said Jacobs, according to WKYC. “She didn’t get to do everything she had planned. She deserves more of a legacy.”
Lavar is also the founder of a nonprofit organization Not Just October — a non-profit organization created to expand the knowledge and resources available to breast cancer patients, survivors, and their supporters. It was founded in October 2014.
The Kim Jacobs Cancer Resource Center goes way beyond the provision of medical resources.
“It’s a place where women who are battling breast cancer can come get wigs, massages, therapy, help with their finances, help with insurance, the kids have a room where they can hang out while she’s receiving services,” he told WKYC. “Then outdoors, we do lawn care, snow removal, home cleaning, carpet cleaning … pretty much anything a woman would need that’s battling breast cancer.”
At the entrance of the center, the urn with Lavar’s mother’s ashes is on display alongside photos of women who have lost their battle with the disease, in honor of their strength, resilience, and legacies.
For Jacobs, this is how he honors the women who lost their lives to breast cancer, while also keeping his mother close.
“She was my best friend,” he said. “If you knew me while my mom was still living, you knew how close me and my mom were. I know she’s looking down right now like, ‘That’s my baby. Look what my son’s doing. There he is.’”
The Kim Jacobs Breast Cancer Resource Center officially opened for business on May 3, 2021.
