‘SC has a piece of my heart’: First lady Jill Biden makes multiple stops in Charleston
In her second visit to South Carolina as first lady, Jill Biden spent time in Charleston Monday championing two of her greatest passions: cancer research and military families.
In the early afternoon, she walked the halls of the Medical University of South Carolina’s Hollings Cancer Center, the leading cancer treatment center in the state, during the final week of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
A few hours later, at Joint Base Charleston, she participated in a “Joining Forces” event where she thanked service members and their families at the military base, whose history dates back to the World War II era.
At both events, the first lady applauded the people she met. And when asked about how it felt to be back in South Carolina, she gushed after posing for photos and thanking servicemen and women at Joint Base Charleston.
“Are you kidding me?” Biden said, beaming. “South Carolina has a piece of my heart.”
The visit marked Biden’s second trip to the Palmetto State in nearly two weeks, after the first lady made a surprise visit to Brookland Baptist Church on Oct. 17.
The state also played a crucial role in her husband’s political comeback in securing the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Monday’s visit to Charleston, however, was a packed day for the first lady that left little room for politics: Hearing about cancer outreach programs for historically under-served communities, visiting a lab where new drugs have been developed to combat cancer, touring a mobile screening van and addressing service members and their families.
In a bright yellow skirt and matching shirt that she said she wore to try to “bring some sunshine,” Biden nodded her head as she listened to women at MUSC’s Hollings Cancer Center tell their stories about how breast cancer has affected their lives.
One of the women was LaToya Wilson of Charleston.
Wilson, who addressed Biden from her wheelchair, told the first lady she has been fighting breast cancer since her diagnosis in 2012. Now, the mother of four is living with stage four metastatic breast cancer.
“I was shocked to find out that I had cancer, but I was determined to fight and have a positive attitude because my kids need me,” Wilson said. “Too many women, particularly Black women are dying of breast cancer and I’m going to do what I can to raise awareness.”
Wilson said she regularly turns to her Facebook to document her good days and her bad days, noting that her mission is to encourage more Black women like herself to get their mammograms and to consider participating in clinical trials.
Wilson did, and now that drug has since been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, she said.
“Battling cancer it is hard, it is tough sometimes but I’m still here, and as long as I’m breathing and I have breath in my lungs, I’m going to keep fighting,” she said.
Asked by a reporter how she felt hearing those stories, Biden put a hand to her heart.
“It’s stories I heard when four of my close friends were diagnosed with breast cancer. One of them did not survive,” Biden said, adding that she vowed then that she would commit to using her platform to raise cancer prevention awareness.
In addition to her friend, she and President Joe Biden’s son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46. His death, she confessed during her visit to the church in West Columbia, temporarily shattered her faith.
Her parents also died of cancer.
“It touches every American family,” Biden said before meeting with doctors, community advocates and medical students.
In her comments, Biden also lamented that millions of Americans have put off getting cancer screenings during this pandemic, saying, “We’ve got to make it up.”
At Joint Base Charleston, Biden kept her remarks brief at what felt like a fall festival hosted at a picnic area on the base, complete with a bounce house and cornhole boards.
Her speech, which lasted just under seven minutes, blended gratitude with comments about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Joint Base Charleston is home to the aircrews who helped conduct the airlift out of Kabul.
The president and his national security team have drawn fierce criticism for the chaos surrounding the two-week evacuation this summer, which included the deaths of 13 U.S. service members who died in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport.
“In the final days of America’s war, the women and men of the 437th Airlift Wing distinguished themselves in the execution of one of the largest humanitarian airlifts ever conducted,” she said, calling their mission complex, delicate and dangerous. “It demanded the highest level of skill and intelligence work. And because of your dedication and excellence, more than 120,000 people were evacuated. So thank you.”
She then thanked the families for their support in ending the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
“You, their families, were serving in your own ways here at home. You always do,” Biden said. “You sacrifice jobs and moves with every PCS (permanent change of station). You take on extra responsibilities when your service member deploys. You find ways to balance all the conflicting emotions of this life: pride and fear, frustration and joy. You offer love, comfort and constancy through tours of duty and homecomings.”
“For 20 years,” she continued, “families like yours have carried the weight of these wars.”
Biden concluded her remarks by thanking service members and telling them if they ever need to talk to someone, to reach out to the military crisis line.
“Help is available. You are not alone. Your commitment to our country never waivers. And neither will our commitment to you,” she promised.
To applause from the roughly 200 people in attendance, Biden wrapped up her remarks at the informal event.
At the end of the event, Biden posed for photos with service members and their children. She also signed a copy of “Joey: The Story of Joe Biden,” the children’s book she wrote about President Biden, for one of the service members.
She said she plans to visit more military bases in the future, saying it is important to thank troops and their families for their service.
This story was originally published October 25, 2021 at 5:01 PM.
