9:00am Thursday 4th February 2010
By Lucie Richards
WOMEN are being urged to sign up and help the fight against cancer by joining the female-only 2010 Basingstoke Race for Life event.
Girls, mothers, aunts and grandmothers, as well as friends and colleagues, can join this year’s Cancer Research UK Race for Life event, which is taking place on June 20 at 11am at Down Grange Sports Complex.
Participants of all abilities can walk, jog or run the 5km course and help the fight against cancer, as all money raised goes towards funding Cancer Research UK’s life-saving work.
For 2010, organisers are hoping that 4,100 women in Basingstoke will put their best feet forward and raise £231,000.
Rachel White, the charity’s south events manager, said: “This year Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life is going to be full of amazing moments for everyone – from lining up at the start, side-by-side with thousands of other women, to reading the inspirational back-signs worn by participants, to the fantastic sense of achievement from crossing the finish line.
“Women of all ages, abilities, shapes and sizes take part in Race for Life.
“Many simply walk round, chatting and having fun, but they all share the wonderful atmosphere at the event.”
There will be an added dimension to Basingstoke’s Race for Life event this year, because a 10km event will also be taking place at Down Grange Sports Complex the day before, on June 19 at 10am.
Each year around 39,630 people are diagnosed with cancer in the south-east.
Over 230 Race for Life events are held across the country every year. Since they started in 1994, the overall death rate for the disease has dropped by 15 per cent.
The charity funds research and clinical trials throughout Hampshire. For example, in Basingstoke people with pancreatic cancer can take part in a study to find the best treatment to give patients after they have had surgery.
This important work could improve the outlook for people with pancreatic cancer in the future. Clinical trials like this are vital to help find new and better ways to treat cancer and save more lives.
Basingstoke participants will be among 700,000 women taking part in Race for Life events in 2010.
Cancer Research UK hopes that together they will raise a total of £60m for the charity’s work.
Ms White said: “One in three people in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer at some stage in their lives. But the good news is that more people are beating the disease than ever before.”
Anyone wanting more information, or who wishes to enter, can visit raceforlife.org or call 0871 641 1111.
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