Race For Cure for Breast Cancer Draws Thousands to Tupelo

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) — There was a sea of pink in downtown Tupelo Saturday morning.

Fair Park was awash with people. Around 4-thousand participants, sponsors and survivors were on hand for the annual North Mississippi Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

Melonie Kight is the Race Chair. She stresses that early detection is extremely important.

“The funds that we raise are to help those who can’t afford mammograms,” she explains. “And one of the things we try to educate people is mammograms are the early detection item that we have. If you understand how important it is to get your mammograms, the earlier we find the problem, the better chances are that you will survive,” according to Kight.

And there were many survivors on hand for the event to encourage one and other. Cindy Edwards is Survivor Chair.

“It’s very important because if you think about a newly diagnosed woman with breast cancer to come to an event and see somebody who has survived breast cancer for forty years,” Edwards explains. “What that says to that newly diagnosed woman is I can survive this. I can live a normal active life. That just reinforces that hope and gives them something to look forward to and know that this is not a disease that going to end my life,” she says.

Edwards says one percent of those afflicted with breast cancer are male. Last year 170-thousand dollars was granted out to patients in the sixteen county area of North Mississippi.

Kight says 25-percent of the funds raised here go to breast cancer research.