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Valley cancer nonprofit honors Cardinals' Fitzgerald, author

The Valley nonprofit "Don't be a Chump! Check for a Lump!" held its 8th annual "Wig Out" gala Saturday night, honoring Cardinals' football star Larry Fitzgerald and two-time breast cancer survivor Jami Goldman Marseilles.

PHOENIX - The Valley cancer nonprofit "Don't be a Chump! Check for a Lump!" held its 8th annual "Wig Out" gala Saturday night, honoring Cardinals' football star Larry Fitzgerald and two-time breast cancer survivor Jami Goldman Marseilles.

The annual event raises money for community education and to purchase wigs for breast cancer patients. The nonprofit has provided more than 1,100 free wigs to breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Hundreds of attendees donned wigs and candy-themed outfits for the "I Want Candy" gala at the Pointe Tapatio Cliffs Resort in north Phoenix.

Fitzgerald received the nonprofit's 2018 Humanitarian Award for his charity work with the First Down Fund and Cardinals Crucial Catch. The sports icon routinely talks about his mother's death in 2003 to breast cancer, after which he has been a strong advocate of research and funding. Fitzgerald was unable to attend the event Saturday but sent a statement of gratitude to supporters of "Don't be a Chump, Check for a Lump."

"I am honored they thought of me for the Humanitarian Award and I love what they are doing for others," Fitzgerald said in a written statement.

Marseilles received the 2018 "Warrior with Hope" award. As an author, mother and motivational speaker, she is the only female "bi-lateral below-the-knee amputee" to have finished a marathon and she holds several world records.

Marseilles told the crowd about her harrowing story of being 19-years-old and having both of her legs amputated below the knee after being involved in a car crash and stranded in a snow storm on a deserted Arizona road. She said enduring that chapter of her life, and later overcoming breast cancer, helped make her a stronger woman and mother.

Marseilles invited the audience to push themselves out of their comfort zones and to try something new, noting that before she trained for running marathons, she never considered herself a runner.

"I didn't even like to sweat," she said.

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