video: Race For A Cure Comes To Tupelo

By: Chad Groening

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI)- More than 4,000 participants descended onto downtown Tupelo to paint the streets pink today.

Fair Park was a sea of pink and the cool weather was perfect for the 19th annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
75% of the proceeds of this event are used for the treatment of breast cancer patients in Northeast Mississippi, and 25% of the proceeds go to research to find a cure for the number one cancer that afflicts women.

“First and foremost more and more men are being detected with breast cancer as well. One in eight people will be diagnosed with breast cancer. So it’s anything that feels abnormal. So You have to know your body you know if it’s pulling or there’s soreness, there’s so many different things that go,” says race chair Melonie Kight.

Cindy Edwards was in charge of the survivors tent.

“We have people who are newly diagnosed with cancer seeing people who have survived breast cancer 25, 30, 35 years out that breast cancer does not mean the end to life, that life does go on you will survive it and have a normal life,” says survivor chair Cindy Edwards.

There were a number of breast cancer survivors at today’s event. All of them without exception say early detection is essential.

“Just went for my regular mammogram. And while I was there that day they did a biopsy. I found the next couple of days it was cancer. And the day after that I had surgery. And then I went through 35 rounds of radiation,” says survivor Sarah Palmer.

“I was just doing a home health self breast exam and found the lump and went to my doctor and we just ran some tests and I was diagnosed with Stage 2 triple negative. If it’s caught early enough you can get the available treatments and become a survivor,” says Palmer.

She explains why there is such an emphasis on the color pink.

“I’ve worn pink all month. And people ask me why do you have pink hair, this old woman you know why do you have pink hair? And I say because I want you to ask me about it and then I want to say, don’t skip your mammogram. And please do your breast exams,” says Palmer.

This year proceeds from Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure have been used to supply more than $150,000 in grants given to breast cancer patients in our area.