Run for the Cure Tackles Breast Cancer
Prince George, B.C. – People who this very moment are fighting breast cancer, people who have fought the war and survived, and relatives and friends of people who fell to the disease will gather at City Hall tomorrow to take part in the CIBC Run for the Cure.
They’ll be joining people in 64 other Canadian communities in the effort to raise funds to fight and eventually find a cure for the disease. Participants will take part in either a 1 kilometre or 5 kilometre walk or run which last year raised more than $80,000 in Prince George.
Kristen Sandhu, who along with Melissa Veregin are the Co-Run Directors of the 2014 event, says the months of planning and promoting the Run have resulted in everything being set to go on Sunday but adds “right now we are looking for a few route marshalls, the people who stand out along the courses and make sure everyone is running in the right direction. We are needing a few more, we do have enough but its always good to have extras just to make sure that we have people along the way and we can also pair people up as well.” If you can help, go to www.cibcrunforthecure.com to sign up as a volunteer. Sandhu says organizers will need to hear from volunteers by about 5 this afternoon.
She says “we’re expecting about 300 participants for the run, which is about how many we had last year. However people also come on run day and that usually means a lot more than we had anticipated.” Now again, the event this year is leaving from City Hall, due to the construction work taking place in the usual starting point at the Civic Centre plaza. Registration begins at 8:30 Sunday morning, followed by opening ceremonies at about 9:20, the Survivor Parade at 9:55 and the run starting at 10 am. An awards ceremony will take place at 11 am when most of the participants will have completed their run.
The 1k and 5k routes leave City Hall, up Patricia, across Queensway and along upper Patricia. The 1k participants break off and head along Ingledew to 16th, down to Queensway and return to City Hall.
The 5k folks continue along upper Patricia to Taylor, heading over to Fort George Park, all the way around the park and coming out on Ingledew, down to 17th, back to the park, along Cedar to 16th, then along Queensway and back to City Hall. The Guardian Angels will be providing traffic control along both routes.
Sunday marks the 23rd annual Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure in Canada. The first run in Prince George was held in 2001. B.C. communities other than Prince George taking part this year include Abbotsford, Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, Surrey, Vancouver, Vernon and Victoria. One hundred percent of the funds raised in those communities will stay in B.C. to help fund research, education and advocacy programs.
Sandhu says she got involved when she was asked to join the organizing committee in 2009 when volunteers were needed. “But I have had friends in the past that are survivors and at that time somebody that I’m close to had been diagnosed and so it really did touch me when she asked me to be a volunteer.”
The breast cancer foundation says one in nine Canadian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their life, 24,400 will be diagnosed each year and 5,100 will die from it. However Sandhu notes that the Run for the Cure is not limited to women only, that men and children take part as well. “There is one percent of men that do have breast cancer as well so it’s not just a woman’s illness. And the majority of people who do participate in this run are family and friends of survivors.”
Comments
In what has become nothing but a PC hot potato, how about presenting this story as a news article? 23 years in existence? Maybe we can have some stats about the effectiveness of the campaign, rather than mortality stats of a dubious nature? I also find the misuse of the word “survivor” tedious. I mean, it is all very well for hyperbole to jazz up the campaign, but to ascribe to the notion that every lump detection is a certain death sentence, to be survived, is just not born by the facts.
We get it. Corporations like the CIBC, who have a predominantly female workforce and have been found guilty of underpaying them, think funding a snazzy PR campaign lets them off the hook. Remember it is the “CIBC” Run for the Cure. Not just a run for a cure.
So obviously you haven’t experienced the gut renching throws of cancer. Big corp=Big Money=funding for cures. So what if they a bank. Wouldn’t you want a good Lawyer rather than a five and dimer on your team.? The negativity on here gets to me. Good news source but I wonder if all people want to do is bash and spread negativity.
In my Opnion
As the sister of a woman who had breast cancer and who has been disease-free for nearly 20 years, a survivor, I appreciate the work of the Run for the Cure. The Run organization has provided me with a lot of information about the disease. It has provided me with a group of other people who have the same goal, a future without breast cancer. I don’t have the statistics available but the funds raised have been used for researchers to find the causes and cures. I do know that BC has the highest survivor rate for breast cancer. Keep up the good work, Run for the Cure.
Cancer research marketing has made a lot of people rich. But, like HAS pointed out, they also do a lot of good.
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