Breast cancer survivor giving ex-convicts second chance at work
BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Anitra Cobb is getting a second chance at life after battling cancer and at the very same time she is trying to give others a second chance.
“I never signed up to get sick and I don’t want to lose everything I got, because I got sick,” Cobb said.
Cobb never signed up for breast cancer, but her employees say she never gave it the chance to take away their second chance.
“She is the most giving person that you could ever meet, someone that is fighting with cancer and still she takes her own problems and pushes them aside and will give someone an opportunity to learn a skill,” Cobb’s employee Henry Sneed said.
Because before that diagnosis, Cobb was using an opportunity a mentor gave her to create second chances for others.
“Mr. Nunnelee paid for me to go to school,” Cobb said.
Then, after going to college, Cobb met her husband.
“He told me he was a grave digger and I said, ‘well, what’s a grave digger?’ and once I realized that his grandfather taught him a whole trade,” Cobb said.
That is when she saw a chance to build a future.
“I took my business skills that Mr. Nunnelee paid for me to go to school and I started this,” Cobb said.
It was about more than just creating a business for burial services though.
“We realized that a lot of people need work,” Cobb said.
This chance was all about creating a second chance.
“We started hiring people that might have an issue with the criminal justice system,” Cobb said.
Henry Sneed is one of those people.
“Everyone in life has made a mistake one time or another,” Sneed said.
Cobb said whether that mistake lands you in prison should not take away a chance to work.
“They all have muscles,” Cobb said. “They all have the desire to work. They all have the strength to work. They all have the ability to work. They just needed a chance to get a job.”
Sneed said it is more than just a second chance at work. It is a second chance at life.
Today, after six years of business, Cobb said she finally got a chance to have a ribbon cutting and honor some of the founders who made it all happen.
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