Team Cordel B Joins Miles for Moffitt To Honor Mother and Inspire Others
When the starting horn sounds at the 20th annual Miles for Moffitt presented by AutoNation, members of Team Cordel B will have a special reason for every step they take.
Team Cordel B is composed of friends and family members of Cordel J.Y. Batchelor, a mother, grandmother, attorney and tireless advocate. Each person on the team will be honoring a woman who used her own 27-year cancer journey to help others facing cancer by comforting them, educating them, praying with them and providing them hope.
The team will join an anticipated group of more than 10,000 people on Nov. 22, 2025, at Amalie Arena in downtown Tampa. Each participant will make a difference by raising funds for research at Moffitt Cancer Center.
“It’s a walk for a community of believers, people who believe that one day we’ll find a cure for this disease,” son Sekou Batchelor said.
Cordel’s relatives say Miles for Moffitt provides a meaningful way for them to pay tribute to one of the strongest women they’ve ever known, while also providing help to others touched by cancer.
“It’s a community of supporters who want to help fund and find groundbreaking, lifesaving research and it’s something that everyone can relate to,” daughter and team captain Kandia Batchelor said. “There’s not a soul who can’t relate to somebody being diagnosed with cancer.”
Although Cordel passed away last year, she remains an inspiration to those who knew her.
Born in Jamaica, she and her husband moved to the United States in 1985. She was a mother of four when she entered Stetson University College of Law. After graduating, she worked as an assistant public defender in the Hillsborough Public Defender’s Office.
Cordel was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997 that metastasized and spread to other parts of her body. She was treated over the years at Moffitt with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation and went into remission multiple times. Last year she developed pancreatic cancer, which proved fatal.
But she never wavered from her positive attitude. Sekou remembers his mother coming to talk to his classes in grade school, reminding all the kids, “If you fall down, get right back up and try again.” He also remembers his mother’s strong Christian faith and how she often read from the book of Proverbs. Throughout her final years she continued her love of travel with trips to South Africa, Hawaii and Paris for Sekou’s wedding.
Cordel also served as a friend and informal advisor to other patients. When friends got cancer, or friends of friends, she shared her own experiences with them and talked to them about getting the best care possible.
When she passed away two months before the 2024 Miles for Moffitt, “We made a deliberate decision as a family that we didn’t want flowers, we didn’t want money, we didn’t want anybody to give us food,” Sekou said. Instead, they asked for donations to Team Cordel B because for Cordel, “Moffitt was the place.”
In last year’s Miles for Moffitt, Team Cordel B received 87 donations totaling $7,670. They’re participating again this year to honor the doctors and nurses who cared for Cordel over many years but also to provide better futures for others.
“We’re supporting lifesaving, groundbreaking cancer research because everybody’s household has been affected,” Kandia said.
Written by Curtis Krueger, the Moffitt Foundation’s development communications officer
