April Samuels picked up her first pair of drumsticks when she was five years old, and she never really put them down. Now a professional drummer and breast cancer survivor, she is preparing for the 12th annual Drummathon, a free, family-friendly fundraiser set for Sunday from noon to 7 p.m. at The Sound at Cypress Waters in Dallas.
Samuels has drummed for most of her life, but everything changed in 2010 when she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, according to CBS News Texas. The diagnosis came on October 26, 2010, and her cancer had been caught early, per Breast Cancer Can Stick It!. She underwent a double mastectomy followed by chemotherapy and was declared cancer-free just seven months later.
That brush with an aggressive diagnosis led her to found Breast Cancer Can Stick It!, the organization behind Drummathon. The nonprofit primarily raises money for the Baylor Scott and White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center in Dallas, the station reports, and also supports Parkland Hospital by helping pay for mammograms for people who are uninsured or underinsured and by helping cover the cost of treatment. The foundation became an official 501(c)(3) in May 2013, according to the group's own account of its history.
A Decade-Plus of Drumming for a Cause
Drummathon is free to attend and free to register for, with participants raising money through their own online fundraising pages. All funds raised go toward mammograms, financial assistance for treatment, and breast cancer research and clinical trials, per the event's website. The top 25 fundraisers who raise over $250 by October 11 at 7 p.m. Central Time earned the chance to play a timed, one-minute drum solo at the event. The event also offers opportunities to play on a second drum set with celebrity drummers.
Past celebrity drummers at the event have performed with Rascal Flatts, Reba McEntire, Jason Aldean, Skillet and Slaughter, the fundraiser notes. This year's edition will also feature an appearance by the Dallas Mavericks Drumline, CBS News Texas reports. The event has grown considerably since its first iteration on October 25, 2015, in Fairview, Texas, which raised more than $13,000 before the festival moved to Klyde Warren Park in downtown Dallas and later to Grandscape in The Colony in 2021.
Nearly $700,000 Raised Since 2010
Drummathon has become Breast Cancer Can Stick It's biggest annual event, and the organization says it has raised over $50,000 every year since 2018 alone. Samuels's broader fundraising efforts, stretching back to her diagnosis, have brought in nearly $700,000 in the fight against breast cancer, according to the foundation's own figures. Samuels has said the event gives breast cancer survivors emotional support, and that her experience has made her want to instill hope in people facing a new diagnosis.
Why Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Draws Extra Urgency
The cancer Samuels battled is notably aggressive. Triple-negative breast cancer accounts for roughly 10% to 15% of all breast cancer cases, according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and is more common in women under 40 than other types of the disease. Research compiled by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation also notes that breast cancer incidence rates overall have been climbing faster among women under 50 than among older women, a trend that underscores why Samuels's story resonates with younger patients navigating an early diagnosis.
Patients with Dahlia's Breast Cancer Can Stick It! Fund can also find a measure of direct relief through the foundation. That fund provides financial help with treatment costs for a limited number of qualified breast cancer patients in Dallas County through Parkland, according to Breast Cancer Can Stick It!'s help page. For Samuels, the drums that carried her through childhood have become the instrument through which she now tries to carry others through their own fight.
