A moment at the starting line of Wilmington’s Susan G. Komen Race for a Cure 5k is just as meaningful for participants as celebrations at the finish line.
Nearly 100 breast cancer survivors, dressed in shades of pink, will gather for a group photograph and an acknowledgement of solidarity before running through the streets of downtown Wilmington the morning of Saturday, March 7.
“You’re in a group as a whole with all these wonderful people who you know have beaten this ugly disease,” survivor pavilion chair Tina Ashworth-DeBeasso said. “It’s very emotional and you feel like you’re home, you’re with your family.”
Ashworth-DeBeasso became involved with Susan G. Komen in 2013, when the North Carolina Triangle to the Coast Affiliate of the breast cancer research and awareness nonprofit expanded to Wilmington.
She first became an advocate for curing breast cancer when she was 25 and her older sister was diagnosed with the disease. Decades later, in 2009, Ashworth-DeBeasso was diagnosed with the same cancer.
“Once Susan G. Komen came to the Wilmington area, it gave me the opportunity to focus on that organization and what they do,” she said, “not only for breast cancer research, but … bringing education and diagnostic services … to those that don’t have access to it or can’t afford it, so we can get more early detection stories and more survival stories.”
Pam Kohl, breast cancer survivor and executive director of the North Carolina Triangle to the Coast Affiliate, said the fundraising goal for this year’s race is $200,000. The success of the fundraising is due largely to a team fundraising competition within the event, Kohl said.
A group of participants may choose to register as a team, many times accompanied by a creative team name and costumes. Awards are given to the largest team, the top fundraising team and the team with the best T-shirt design.
The event’s celebration of the team mentality includes honoring not just the group of survivors but each woman’s support system. A number of the 1,200 expected participants are family and friends of the survivors.
During a ceremony after the race, Ashworth-DeBeasso said, each survivor is given a flower to present to a caregiver who helped her through her fight against breast cancer.
“We do focus on survivors because they should feel how important they are to the celebration,” she said, adding the post-race ceremony also includes a survivor cheer, inspirational music and pom-poms. “But we do like to make it [an event] for a community as a whole, family members, friends, neighbors, everybody.”
For more information or to register, visit www.komennctc.org
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