Bishopstown turns pink
There was a sea of pink in Bishopstown over the weekend as more than 2,500 enthusiastic participants took part in the annual Very Pink Run.
Taking place at MTU, families, friends, seasoned runners, casual walkers, and a host of familiar faces came together for Breast Cancer Ireland’s (BCI) annual event.
The much-loved annual fundraising event is now a firm fixture in the calendar for thousands around the world. Indeed, what began as a local fundraiser has grown into a powerful global movement, with more than 97,000 participants across 40 countries raising over €7.3 million to date and counting - excluding this year’s participation and fundraising figure.
The Breast Cancer Ireland Very Pink Run events are a fun filled, family focussed and inclusive day out, where everyone is welcome, with no upper or lower age limits. The live events are aimed at casual strollers, keen walkers, joggers and seasoned runners alike, over a 5k or 10k distance, and are open to families, friends and solo participants. They offer a fun, family festival style outing with music, games and children’s entertainment.
Those who missed the action in Cork at the weekend need not worry, a third and final event is set to take place on Sunday 14 September in the beautiful Kilkenny Castle Park grounds, with registration still open on verypinkrun.ie.
The funds raised through the event this year will be channelled into two targeted areas by Breast Cancer Ireland. These are continued investment into research into metastatic disease progression to the brain and driving progression and speed of scientific discovery from research settings into international clinical trials.
Its research into metastatic disease progression to the brain is done through an international collaboration with the Ludwig Breast Research Centre at the University of Chicago, and the BCI funded Research Centre at the Royal College of Surgeons. Metastatic disease progression is still the most challenging and while advances are being made in relation to major organs, the brain is still the most puzzling and so we need to continuously invest in order to identify ways of preventing this often-fatal diagnosis.
Meanwhile, BCI has a goal is to transform new scientific discoveries in the laboratories into clinical trials so as to develop newer more effective targeted therapies and treatments into the future.