DENVER - About 55,000 people signed up to participate in the 19th Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Sunday morning at the Pepsi Center.
RACE FOR THE CURE
Last year, the event raised more than $1 million for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. More than 50,000 people participated in last year's Race for the Cure.
The Denver chapter of Komen for the Cure was founded in 1993 and provides services to 19 counties across Colorado, covering about 70 percent of the state's population. They say over 16 percent of the women between the ages of 18 and 64 who live in their service area are uninsured.
According to Komen for the Cure, more than 39,520 women in the U.S. will die from breast cancer this year, which is the equivalent to the population of Littleton. They say Colorado has a higher incidence rate of breast cancer, since about one in every seven women in the state will be diagnosed in their lifetime, but a lower mortality rate.
The foundation says one woman is diagnosed with breast cancer somewhere in the world once every 23 seconds. Worldwide, a woman dies of breast cancer once every 69 seconds.
A disease that commonly affects women, breast cancer can also strike in men. Komen for the Cure estimates 2,140 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year.
Although the statistics can be unsettling, researchers say a person diagnosed in the early stages of breast cancer today has a 98 percent chance of living another five years, on average. That's up from 77 percent in 1982.
The majority of the money, 75 percent, raised at this year's Race for the Cure will stay in Colorado to help create grants. The money will fund 29 projects across the state, totaling $2.98 million in grants, helping women with everything from mammograms to mastectomies, mortgage payments to meals. The other 25 percent of funds raised will go towards national research.
The Susan G. Komen Foundation also offers people the chance to text in a donation by texting DENVER to 90999 to give $10 to the Komen Denver Race for the Cure.
For more information on the event, visit the Denver Race for the Cure homepage.
For more information on breast cancer, visit Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
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