Sherry Pollex, who rallied the NASCAR community with her philanthropic efforts to fight cancer, has died. She was 44.
Pollex’s passing was announced Sunday by her family. The cause was cancer, which she had fought since her initial diagnosis in 2014.
Pollex was instrumental in founding Catwalk for a Cause, a charity fashion gala that brought the NASCAR industry together in the fight against childhood cancer. The event was founded in 2010 and has raised more than $4 million to fund initiatives to combat the disease.
That project launch came four years before her own diagnosis with Stage 3 ovarian cancer at age 35. Her charitable works expanded to fund research to help battle ovarian cancer, a form of the disease for which she said treatment and care protocols had made relatively few advancements in the last 30 years. In 2020, her foundation partnered with Novant Health in Charlotte to open the Sherry Strong Integrative Medicine Oncology Clinic.
Pollex and former partner Martin Truex Jr. were named recipients of the National Motorsports Press Association’s Myers Brothers Award for outstanding contributions to the sport of stock-car racing in 2017. Pollex was also a finalist for the Comcast Community Champion of the Year Award in 2022.
The 2023 edition of the Catwalk was held just last Wednesday, with Pollex unable to attend. The event’s co-hosts acknowledged Pollex in introductory remarks, lauding her as “an absolute hero” as the crowd gave her a standing ovation.
