Dressed in pink, participants in the annual Susan Komen 3-Day walk for breast cancer research smiled and waved this weekend as they passed San Diego landmarks. But moods changed when asked why they took part. Lips began to quiver and voices crack.
It’s all so emotional. Many of the nearly 2,000 walkers had photos and names of loved ones pinned to their backs. They carry the hurt on their trek.
They left Friday morning from the Del Mar Fairgrounds. And after walking nearly 60 miles and camping two nights at Crown Point, they entered Waterfront Park downtown. “Finally! We made it!” was heard as they stepped onto a pink walkway under a banner.
In the end, walkers aged 16 to 88 raised $6.3 million. That’s in addition to money raised earlier this year in Boston, Denver and Dallas/Fort Worth.
Yes, they raised funds for cancer research before they took their first steps. But the walk is about paying tribute to mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and friends. And that’s where the tears came.
“I walk for my grandma. She died when I was 5,” said Jeanna Rattenborg of Eugene, Oregon. “My mom, who is a survivor, she was diagnosed five years after my grandma and survived because of advancements that Komen had made in research for new drugs,” she added.
“That’s why she’s alive, so that’s why I do it.” The 40-year-old, in her 10th Komen walk, admitted that it’s a “huge” commitment, but “I want to find a cure in my lifetime. And my grandma, I feel her pre.