Heather Schaller stood in a throng of runners and walkers garbed in pink and white and considered the impact that the Susan G. Komen Denver Race for the Cure has had on her life.
Schaller, 39, of Lakewood learned in 2008 that she had an aggressive form of breast cancer. She credits her survival in part to funds generated by the annual race.
“Komen partly funds one of the studies I’m involved in. I am so thankful for that because I have four children,” Schaller said.
More than 50,000 people turned out for the 18th annual race Sunday, flooding the area around the Pepsi Center with survivors, their families, friends and supporters, many of whom had lost friends or relatives to the disease.
The Denver affiliate of the race has raised and distributed more than $25 million to greater Denver area nonprofit organizations since it was first run in 1993.
The money has funded breast cancer education, screening and treatment programs. Nearly $10 million has gone toward breast cancer research, according to the Komen website.
The Denver race is among the largest in the world. Last year it raised $2 million for treatment and research.
Sharon Larned, 49, said recent improvements in medical technology led to her surviving Stage 4 breast cancer.
“Last year I didn’t think I was going to live, I wasn’t supposed to be here,” she said.
Larned’s best friend, Mary Ardueser, 33, said she is ecstatic over recent advances that have given Larned a shot at survival she wouldn’t have had even a few years ago.
Susan Goodman Komen, for whom the race is named, died in 1980 after a three-year battle with the disease. She was 36.
Before Komen died, her sister, Nancy Brinker, promised she would do everything she could to end breast cancer.
In 1982, Brinker launched the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation from her living room in Dallas. The name was changed to Susan G. Komen for the Cure in 2007.
About 800 people ran around a Dallas shopping mall in the the first Race for the Cure in 1983.
Brinker, who has written a memoir, “Promise Me,” spoke to the crowd after the race. “Keep walking, keep racing, keep the promise,” she said.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
