BALTIMORE – October 24, 2010 – Today, more than 7,000 Maryland residents joined together at the American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer four-mile walk in Baltimore, Md. to help create a world with less breast cancer and more birthdays. The Society encourages women to choose to put their personal breast health first to stay well and reduce their risk of breast cancer, and this noncompetitive event united the entire community to celebrate breast cancer survivors, educate people about how to reduce their breast cancer risk or find the disease early, and raise funds to end the disease. The event and the more than $430,000 raised from it support the Society’s efforts to save lives by helping people stay well, helping people get well, by finding cures and fighting back against breast cancer.
This year, Baltimore’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk was one of more than 200 held across the country. The noncompetitive, inspirational event is the single-largest breast cancer-related event in Baltimore City and featured several unique opportunities for participants, including an effort to set a new Guinness Book of World Records for the most consecutive rounds of “Happy Birthday,” sung in honor of the many cancer survivors in attendance. Nearly 250 people participated in the celebration, enough to share with Guinness officials for a record update.
“Cancer does not go away in tough economic times,” said Gloria Jetter, the Society’s state vice president of Maryland. “We are so thankful for how this community has pulled together to encourage women to fight breast cancer and save lives.”
Funds raised through Making Strides allow the Society to help people stay well by offering early detection and prevention screening guidelines for cancer, and it helps people get well by offering local patient support programs like free transportation to treatment, nutritional counseling and emotional support groups. The Society offers a patient resource navigator at several Baltimore-area hospitals, including Greater Baltimore Medical Center, St. Agnes Hospital, and the University of Maryland’s Greenebaum Cancer Center, to help cancer patients and caregivers understand their diagnosis and make important treatment decisions.
The Society also currently funds more than $16 million of cancer research at hospitals and institutions across Maryland. Seven of these grants, totaling more than $4 million, are focused on breast cancer research at Johns Hopkins University, Mercy Medical Center and the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Sponsors of this year’s Making Strides event include CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Constellation Energy, Merritt Athletic Clubs, Middle River Aircraft Systems, Mile One Automotive, SAIC, WJZ-TV and WWMX-FM.
It is not too late to make a donation to Baltimore’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event. Visit stridesbaltimore.org to help the Society continue making strides and saving lives. For more information about breast cancer, contact the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org.
About the American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society combines an unyielding passion with nearly a century of experience to save lives and end suffering from cancer. As a global grassroots force of more than three million volunteers, we fight for every birthday threatened by every cancer in every community. We save lives by helping people stay well by preventing cancer or detecting it early; helping people get well by being there for them during and after a cancer diagnosis; by finding cures through investment in groundbreaking discovery; and by fighting back by rallying lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and by rallying communities worldwide to join the fight. As the nation’s largest non-governmental investor in cancer research, contributing more than $3.4 billion, we turn what we know about cancer into what we do. As a result, more than 11 million people in America who have had cancer and countless more who have avoided it will be celebrating birthdays this year. To learn more about us or to get help, call us any time, day or night, at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org. For cancer news in your community, visit sacancernews.org.
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Photos courtesy of Maximilian Franz.