Hundreds take step for cancer cause

Close to 1 500 supporters, including Minister of Health John Boyce, turned out to walk or run for the cause of Cancer Below The Belt yesterday.

In its second year, the Sagicor Globeathon Step To End Women’s Cancer 5K Run & Walk, began at the Bay Street Esplanade, went through The City and returned to the Esplanade.

It saw representation from a wide cross-section of individuals and businesses.

President of the Barbados Cancer Society, Dorothy Cooke-Johnson, said the event had raised $56 000 in 2013, which was already being used by the Centre of Excellence at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital which dealt specifically with the five below-the-belt cancers – cervical, ovarian, vaginal, vulval and uterine.

“We are happy with the increasing support for this event as the number of shirts sold and the registration which took place suggest that we should surpass what was raised last year.

“We have done well with the awareness of breast cancer but discussing cancer below the belt is shunned. The five cancers which occur below the belt have a combined mortality rate matching that of breast cancer,” Cooke-Johnson added. (KB)