It was just before Christmas, three years ago, when Julie Chandler broke the news to her husband and four teenage daughters: a lump she found was breast cancer.
The cancer was advanced and had spread to her lymph nodes; odds for her survival, doctors warned, were slim.
After a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation and a stem-cell transplant, Chandler is cancer-free.
On Sunday, she joined more than 62,600 people at the Pepsi Center for Denver’s 13th annual Race for the Cure.
The event raised a record $2.8 million – up 27 percent from last year, organizers said.
Denver’s race also was the largest among those held in 100 cities nationwide, according to spokeswoman Dana Brandorff.
St. Louis and Washington had the next biggest turnouts, Brandorff said.
The event was started in 1983 by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, a Dallas-based group backing breast cancer research and education.
Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women ages 40 to 59, and in 2005, it will claim the lives of 500 Colorado women and 40,000 nationwide, according to the foundation.
“Today is like closing the door on the toughest chapter in my life,” said Chandler, 45, donning a pink boa and a pink cap and surrounded by a dozen friends and relatives below a massive archway of pink and white balloons marking the entrance to the breakfast held for cancer survivors.
“I feel fantastic,” said Chandler, a Castle Rock resident.
By mid-morning Sunday, Lower Downtown was awash in pink, as more than 5,000 lined up for the “family walk” down Auraria Parkway toward the Pepsi Center.
Almost all participants wore pink tags with tributes to those who inspired their participation, such as “My Amazing Wife” and “My Mother.”
Some wore two or three with the names of loved ones touched by breast cancer.
Among the finishers was a 50-year breast cancer survivor, 83-year-old Denver resident Josephine Cisneros.
Denver’s Race for the Cure consisted of four events: a competitive 5-kilometer race, a women’s 5K run/walk, a coed 5K run/walk and a 1-mile Family Walk.
Closing ceremonies included a procession of survivors and songs by survivor and 2004 Grammy Award winner Soraya.
The turnout was down slightly from last year’s tally of 63,458, Brandorff said.
Since it began in 1993, the Denver race has distributed more than $17 million to area nonprofit groups.
This year, organizers raised more than $600,000 in online donations and more than $300,000 in walk-up donations, Brandorff said.
A quarter of the funds raised will go to national projects. The remaining 75 percent will be used to fund 27 breast cancer education and prevention programs in a 12-county area, Brandorff said.
Staff writer Amy Brouillette can be reached at 303-820-1316 or abrouillette@denverpost.com.
62,600 Participants in Sunday’s Race for the Cure in Denver, the largest of 100 such events nationwide
$2.8 MILLION Money raised for national and local breast-cancer projects, up 27 percent from 2004
