38,000 raise $3.3m to trample cancer
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A crowd of 38,000 turned out yesterday on Boston's Esplanade and raised $3.3 million in the 16th annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk, organizers from the American Cancer Society said.
The 5-mile walk is the nation's oldest and largest one-day walk against the disease, officials said. Boston was the first city to host the walk, which has spread to more than 130 communities nationwide, including about 20 New England cities and towns. Boston's walk has raised more than $39 million for research, education, and patient advocacy and support in the last 16 years.
"While we've all had different experiences with cancer, there's one thing we can all agree on," Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday in a statement. "Fighting cancer is a team effort."
According to the Cancer Society, 4,480 women will develop breast cancer in Massachusetts this year. More than 800 people will die from the disease.
October was first declared Breast Cancer Awareness Month in 1985 to publicize the need for wider access to mammograms, according to
The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation started giving out the now well-known pink ribbons at an event in New York City in 1991.
"Making Strides in Boston is a very important fund-raiser," said Debbie Cornwall, a member of the Cancer Society's New England division board of directors. "But it's also an opportunity to learn more about breast cancer and to understand why the society believes that 'Hope Starts With Us.' "
JOHN M. GUILFOIL
