GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — For many. Friday the 13th can be a day of suspicion; for others, October can be a frightening month.
For those who have undergone a cancer diagnosis, Friday the 13th and the frights that go along with October and Halloween, are suddenly no longer so scary.
That includes one of the most well-known characters at Woods of Terror in Greensboro, who recently fought her cancer diagnosis.
"They were like 'you have a significant mass on your lung and your left lung has collapsed'," Erika Jones shared.
Last March, Jones, who plays "Lucy" at Woods of Terror, went to the doctor with symptoms similar to pneumonia, cough, shortness of breath, and chest pain.
Although she was never a smoker and had no contributing factors, she left the emergency room with a diagnosis she never would have dreamt of, a rare form of lung cancer.
"When you are 30 and relatively healthy, and someone comes to you and says, 'Hey, you have cancer', that's daunting. That was not the news I was expecting that day," Jones said.
In the weeks following, doctors would remove one of her lungs, the only cure for her type of cancer.
"They were like, 'We can cut the lung out and you'll be fine after your surgery', a relatively healthy life is what they said. I was not about to let this stop me," Jones said.
Sunday marks five months since Jones had her lung surgery.
Woods of Terror Owner Eddie McLaurin says Jones' rare diagnosis led him to form a nonprofit, "Let's Scare Cancer" to support others, in their industry, that is also battling cancer.
"Even if we could just help them $10,000, $12,000, $15,000 help them pay their bills, if they need to pay the rent, they need some more food, whatever they need," McLaurin said.
McLaurin hopes to help as many people as he can learn that there's hope and they are not alone.
"In years to come, I think we are all going to know within three people, one and three is going to have cancer, some form, some type. So this is for any kind of cancer, lung, breast, cancer, or whatever it is and we know some people are going to need help and we went to be there to help them," McLaurin said.
Jones is looking forward to returning to Woods of Terror, and doing what she loves most.
"This has been my family since I was 15. I will be back. I have no intention of stopping what I'm doing. I'm going to keep haunting with one lung, and I will keep scaring people because that's what I love to do!" Jones said.
Woods of Terror hosts fundraisers throughout the year with proceeds benefitting "Let's Scare Cancer," a schedule of events can be found on their website.