TSR Positive Images: It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month and former Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams takes October as an opportunity to help people gain access to mammograms in his late mother’s honor.
Williams has been committed to fighting breast cancer since his mother Sandra Hill passed away from the disease back in 2014. He started covering the costs of mammogram screenings for women the year after through the DeAngelo Williams Foundation.
He also lost four aunts to breast cancer, according to Sports Illustrated. Since 2015, Williams’ foundation has paid for more than 500 mammograms in the cities of Pittsburgh, Memphis, Charlotte and Jonesboro, Arkansas.
“To be able to help all these women is amazing. This can be life-changing for these women,” Williams told TODAY in a statement. “We are enabling them to get this care that no one should ever be denied or not have access to.”
He was also part of an initiative that was started back in 2009 to encourage the NFL to let players wear pink cleats during the month of October for Breast Cancer Awareness month.
Williams played in the NFL for 11 years, including nine seasons with the Panthers who selected him in the first round of the 2006 draft. He played his final two seasons of his professional career with the Steelers.
