14th Annual Komen Northwest Ohio Race for the Cure

My hometown, Toledo, Ohio, was pink and white Sunday, as more than 16,000 people showed up to walk or run in the 3.1 mile Race for the Cure to raise money for breast cancer awareness. The walkers and runners started in downtown Toledo, at the Fifth Third Field baseball park at 9am on Sunday. This was the 14th Annual Komen Northwest Ohio Race for the Cure.

Nearly every year since 1994 the number of participants has increased in this Toledo, Ohio event. Almost everyone knows someone who has been affected by this disease. Some participants were cancer survivors. Some were walking or running in support of someone who has cancer. Some were there because they wanted to keep the memory alive of someone who had died from cancer. When they completed the 3.1 mile course, they returned to the starting point at Fifth Third Field where more than 1,000 cancer survivors gathered inside to form a pink ribbon on the field.

75% of the money raised is spent on breast cancer education, screening and treatment projects right here in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. The other 25% is given to the Dallas based Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's national research grant program. This foundation was started in 1982 by Nancy G. Brinker after promising her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, to do everything possible to end breast cancer forever. The Komen for the Cure is the world's largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists. These supporters are fighting to save lives, empower people and get quality care for everyone and supplying funds to science to find the cures. The Komen Foundation has become the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world.

In 1984, when breast cancer was diagnosed before it spread beyond the breast, the five-year survival rate was just 74%. Now the survival rate is 98%. Almost 75% of women over the age of 40 now receive regular mammograms compared to just 30% in 1982. America's 2.3 million breast cancers survivors, which are the largest group of cancer survivors in the United States, are a living testament to the power of society and science to save lives. Without a cure for breast cancer it is estimated that 25 million women around the world will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 10 million could die over the next 25 years.