ORLANDO, Fla. — Thousands of people packed downtown Orlando Saturday morning for the annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk.
The walk started at 9 a.m., but people were out at Lake Eola well before 5 a.m., setting up tents and getting the start and finish lines ready.
The goal of the walk is to finish the fight against breast cancer by raising money for research, prevention and treatment programs for patients.
Last year, there were more than 50,000 participants and nearly 950 teams.
About $829,000 was raised, but this year, the goals were set even higher.
The organization wants to raise $1 million, and about 60,000 people of more than 1,100 teams participated.
Channel 9’s Karla Ray spoke to the top pacesetter for this year’s race.
Diane Holmes is a two-time survivor who has raised thousands of dollars on her own.
“As of last night my total is $14,000; still climbing, and the reason that is is because I convince people how important it is to raise money for breast cancer,” Holmes said. “We do not want another woman—your daughter, my niece—to ever hear, ‘I’m sorry, you have breast cancer.’”
Thousands of survivors and people still battling breast cancer attend the event every year.
Ray spoke to an Orlando man who is among the 1 percent of male breast cancer patients.
He starts treatment on Monday.
“I’m just out here to let men know you can get breast cancer. It can happen. It was a big shock to me at first. I was embarrassed, but now I’m just going to get out here and talk about how men can get breast cancer,” said Dwayne Bratcher.
Daybreak anchor and cancer survivor Vanessa Echols emceed the events throughout the morning.
WFTV
