Each year in December, a cancer survivor is chosen to turn up the switch at the ceremonial lighting of the “Lights of Love” tree at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, meant to symbolize hope for the area’s cancer patients.

This year, the tree lighter will be on of Southwest Georgia’s most widely known people _ real estate professional and retired banker Patsy Martin.

“I want it (Lights of Live) to be successful, because all the money goes to the cancer center at Phoebe,” she said. “They have already designated the money and what it is going to … Lights of Love thinks about those in cancer treatment and anything that would improve it. “(To be picked) as a big obligation, a big responsibility and a tremendous honor.”

Martin’s perspective on life changed last year after several mammograms performed over the course of several months and a follow-up ultrasound ultimately revealed breast cancer.

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