Community members will come together for prayer and an opportunity to learn about breast cancer on Oct. 5 at the third annual Breast Cancer Awareness Prayer Breakfast, hosted by the Bobbie E. Nixon Breast Awareness Foundation.

The breakfast will be from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 at The Grand Banquet Hall in Picayune and tickets are $20 per person or $200 for a table of 10. Proceeds from the event will be used to host next year’s breakfast and support local breast cancer organizations.

In previous years, the breakfast focused on singing, prayer and preaching, said foundation president A. Lisa Lymuel. While this year’s breakfast will include praise and worship and prayer and liturgical dancers, organizers have also added a forum with three generations of women with breast cancer in their family, Lymuel said. The women will speak about their own experiences with fighting breast cancer and living beyond treatment.

Ginny Gunn with Slidell Memorial Regional Cancer Center will also speak about methods to identify breast cancer and the importance of early detection, Lymuel said. Gunn will be available to answer questions from attendees during the event.

“We wanted to make people aware of how it’s so important to be tested for breast cancer, because it runs in the family and early detection can prevent it,” Lymuel said.

The foundation is named in honor of Bobbie Evelyn Williams Nixon, who was the principal of South Side Elementary and a prominent member of the Pearl River County community before she died from breast cancer in 1987 at 42-years-old, Lymuel said. Nixon, who held two masters degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi, worked in Picayune schools for 18 years, and became principal of the elementary school in 1984.

“She’s well known in the Pearl River County area for singing and playing the piano, and she was a great supporter of the United Way,” Lymuel said.

The breakfast will be at 217 S. Curran Ave. and will include retail vendors. To purchase tickets or for more information about the event call 769-926-8840 or 601-916-1917.

This article has been updated to include Nixon’s correct middle name.