Pardee Hospital Foundation to host 20th annual Women Helping Women luncheon
The Pardee Hospital Foundation announced today that best-selling author and CBS contributor Lee Woodruff will be the keynote speaker at the 20th annual Women Helping Women luncheon on Friday, Oct. 20 at 11:30 a.m. in the Technology Building at Blue Ridge Community College. Tickets to the luncheon are $125 each and are available at pardeehospitalfoundation.org or by calling 828-233-2700. Each ticket price helps provide for uninsured or under-insured women in the community to receive an important health screening.
The luncheon will include the announcement of the 2017 Woman of Hope award recipients, for which nominations are currently being accepted. Every year, the Pardee Foundation honors at least one woman in the community who has experienced cancer or another serious health condition, and has shared her story of courage and determination. Community members are encouraged to nominate family, friends and colleagues for this award. Nominations will be accepted through Sept. 1. To complete a nomination form, visit http://pardeehospitalfoundation.org/support-the-foundation/women-helping-women/women-of-hope/.
“We are pleased to host our 20th annual Women Helping Women Luncheon with Lee Woodruff as our keynote speaker,” said Kimerly Hinkelman, executive director of Pardee Hospital Foundation. “We hope you will join us to celebrate our 2017 Woman of Hope recipients, to hear Lee’s inspirational story of strength and grace after her husband, ABC news reporter Bob Woodruff, was severely injured, as well as from a woman who has benefited from the Women Helping Women program. Both men and women are invited to attend this special event.”
The Women Helping Women program began in 1998 primarily to help uninsured and under-insured women receive mammograms. The program has expanded over the years to include important screenings to prevent and treat all women’s cancers, heart disease, and other life-threatening medical conditions. As of 2017, Women Helping Women has raised over $2.3 million in financial assistance for women in Henderson County. Each ticket sold provides a potentially lifesaving health screening to one woman who otherwise would be unable to afford it.
Lee Woodruff knows that life can change in an instant. One minute, you’re a successful freelance writer and businesswomen, mother of four children, and wife to Bob Woodruff, the newly appointed co-anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight. The next minute, your life turns upside down when your husband is severely wounded in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq. Gaining strength from their own incredible ordeal, Lee and her husband made the decision to help others, founding the Bob Woodruff Family Fund for Traumatic Brain Injury. Now a best-selling author, Woodruff shares her personal story with audiences, providing them with the wisdom and inspiration she learned along her remarkable, and often difficult, journey.
With her down to earth, compassionate style, Woodruff has penned multiple best-selling books. She and Bob wrote a compelling account of their story titled In an Instant: A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing. In another best-selling book, Perfectly Imperfect – A Life in Progress, Woodruff tackles the universal topics of life – including family, friends and marriage – with heart and humor. Furthermore, her first novel, Those We Love Most, became a New York Times bestseller and won the Washington Irving Book Award. Woodruff is also a contributing reporter for CBS This Morning.
Lee conveys a message of love, healing and an understanding that we’re all fighting our own battle. Engaging, heartfelt and candid, Lee Woodruff’s dynamic presentations remind audiences of all ages that nothing is stronger than love and hope.
Pardee Memorial Hospital Foundation was approved as a nonprofit foundation in January 1996. The Foundation exists to educate and inspire the community to support Pardee Hospital. Since its inception, the Foundation has generated more than $37 million in pledges and cash gifts for Pardee services. For more information, visit www.pardeehospitalfoundation.org or call 828-233-2700.