The walk in El Paseo, Calif., may fund the 800-plus women in the community, but as the nation’s pinkest city Saturday, it has reached women across the U.S. Breast cancer walks are not simply a fundraiser, but also a way to raise awareness for women.
Saturday’s event brought out close to 1,000 people to fight for the lives of their mothers, sisters and wives and help women understand the need of regular check-ups. Breast cancer is very deadly killing nearly 40,000 women a year, but when caught in the early stages there is a 98 percent chance of survival.
This walk shares that hope of survival but also raised $100,000 for the community women with a donor matching the total raised. The El Paseo breast cancer awareness walk is also a symbol of hope for the 2.5 million cancer survivors in the United States. Hopefully other communities will see the impact this desert town has had on its residents and make a goal to do the same.
Sure I notice all the pink on the NFL players’ uniforms, I talk about how cute it is, but rarely do I think about the true meaning. After reading stories about the El Paseo breast cancer walk and accounts of survivors, painting the town pink has a new meaning for me as a woman. Instead of noticing how adorable all the pink outfits and cute dogs dressed in pink are, I realize that each piece of pink means that every woman needs to be checking their breasts routinely.
With a statistic of one in eight women being affected by the disease, the odds are too great to think that it won’t happen to me. Until yesterday, I forgot how important lifestyle decisions like dieting and exercising are to keeping a healthy immune system that can help prevent breast cancer.
The El Paseo race has also helped to tell women that breast cancer can strike anyone no matter your age, race, or any other risk factors. Even thousands of miles away, the pictures of a town dressed in pink has told a life-saving story to me and hopefully to many other women.