Charity run to promote awareness of breast cancer
Over 3,000 people in pink and green T-shirts participated in an event at Century Park in the Pudong New Area on the weekend to promote the public awareness of breast cancer.
It is the sixth year that More Than Aware, a local voluntary group with members from various nations living in Shanghai, have organized such an event. This year, the activity also won support from the Shanghai People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.
It was the third time Christine Marote from Brazil participated in the charity run.
“I like the events organized by MTA helping the breast cancer patients because they really need our help,” she said. “In another program launched by MTA, I have also sponsored a Chinese woman who suffers from the disease.”
Kong Jinmei, a breast cancer survivor from Jing’an District, said such events were important for people like her.
“The organization has been teaching us about healthy diet and exercise, as well as how to keep ourselves happy, which are all crucial and helpful for us to beat cancer,” she said. “We are grateful as it makes us feel the social care and gives us the confidence to survive the disease.”
Suzanne Calton, founder of the organization, said she launched MTA in 2011 to help cancer patients in Shanghai as her mother passed away from breast cancer that year.
Calton said that the event focuses on promoting people’s awareness of breast cancer and a healthy lifestyle. A fundraiser luncheon held last October raised around 460,000 yuan (US$72,400).
All the money is donated to the Shanghai Cancer Recovery Center, which has a documented 90% recovery rate from breast cancer, one of the highest in the world, thanks to a proactive prevention lifestyle and support.
SCRC is an experimental site for the World Health Organization and Harvard University.
