2008 San Diego Breast Cancer 3-Day Day 3 Pictures

Monday, November 24, 2008

I'm still on a high from the weekend. Mom says the walk is like a religious experience and I can see why. I can't yet put into words how great it was to volunteer and be "behind the scenes."

Seeing the walkers and crew members come in for the final stretch was so inspiring. I was handing out their Victory shirts and the single long-stemmed pink roses that Pro Flowers provides every year.


As the walkers passed through the Victory
tent, the crew received grey shirts, walkers got white and survivors, pink. My table was right next to where the survivors picked up their shirts. It was very hard not to be in tears all day.

Seeing that pile of pink shirts grow smaller throughout the day was both heartbreaking and celebratory. If I had the privilege of handing a rose to a survivor I bowed and said "congratulations" which definitely had more than one meaning.

(She was limping so badly her friends had to help keep her standing)

One woman stopped for her shirt and her team had her pose for a photo. One second she was smiling and laughing and the next she was sobbing. They wrapped her in a group hug and they all cried together. I felt a bit like a voyeur. Even surrounded by thousands of people it was such an
intimate moment.

I also got to be there when they announced that the last wa
lker was about to come in. I saw her Saturday and honestly thought she was a homeless person taking advantage of the sweets and other things being passed out along the route.

When the announcement came out that she was on her way in, every walker there cheered and moved forward to try and get her picture. She was brought in with a police escort and when she stopped to put on her shirt she was in tears. As were so many others. She posed for photos and I gave her the entire bundle of flowers I was holding.


The official statistics haven't come out but I heard there were between 4,500-5,000 walkers this year and they raised just over $11 million dollars.


My mom is already committed to walking again next year. She may or may not stop after her tenth which she really wants to do in either San Francisco or Denver.



These ladies were not allowed to walk since they are currently undergoing their chemo treatments. They are both in their 20's.

I will definitely be out there again next year and I hope you will too. And like I mentioned in my first post, when the walkers take off one shoe and lift it high as the survivors enter The Survivors Circle, it gets me, every time.


Way to go mom! You rock!

Read about the other two days of the walk: Day 1, Day 2

7 comments:

  1. How fabulous. Those are wonderful pictures. I am thinking of doing this next year and you and your mom have inspired me.

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  2. Your mother is a total Rock Star!

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  3. I just read all three posts on the walk. Amazing! I knew the women camped, but had no idea it's like the way it is (pink tents, main street, doctors, massages). What a community. And all the people along the way! Your mom should be so proud of her participation. And you, too. Maybe next year I'll volunteer and be part of such an amazing experience.

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  4. Great photos and tears in my eyes. My motherinlaw is a survivor which somehow I forget in the wake of the brain tumor, the parkinsons, the traumatic brain injury fall. But I do remember the courage with which she faced the Beast 15 years ago. And she did it for her grandchildren to come....some women are darned powerful...thanks for sharing and for volunteering!

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  5. TGND - Seeing all the survivors was great, but I can't wait for the day when everyone is a survivor because there's a cure.

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  6. Wow, that sounds like such an awesome experience. I love the photo of your mom tending to her blisters and drinking wine.

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