More than 2,000 cyclists of all ages along with various sponsors gathered early Sunday morning for Tour De Pink’s fourth annual cancer awareness bike ride at Prairie View A&M University.
Continental Airlines, Energy Drink, Clif, and Bike Sport were just a few of the many sponsors who helped raise money for the event. Compass Bank was the present sponsor for Tour De Pink. Balloons were used as markers to signal cyclists when to start. There were 12, 23, 47, 63, 80, and 100 mile courses.
Kara Willis, a senior agriculture economics major, is passionate about the race because cancer hits so closely to home.
“Tour de Pink is especially important to me because my stepmother is a 10 year survivor of breast cancer,” Willis said.
Willis and her family also ran for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure held in Washington D.C.
Loubel Cruz, associate director of Pink Ribbon Project, was responsible for organizing the event. Cruz said anyone could register as a volunteer by going online and signing up on the Web site www.pinkribbon.org. She also encouraged students to come and help out. “We would love to have all Prairie View students volunteer for us.” Volunteers for this year’s Tour De Pink were “able to help cyclists around the campus,” and also, “be energetic cheerleaders for the cyclists,” said Cruz.
The goal for Tour De Pink is to raise money while educating people about cancer, “We hope to raise more than $350,000 to better cancer education, outreach, and awareness,” said Cruz. There was a mammogram van that sat outside of the Willie Tempton Memorial Student Center all day for everyone to come inside and see how the equipment in the van functioned.
Loretta Hamser, director of Imaging Service for Harris County Hospital District, Sanjuanita “San” Rodriguez, clerk and translator, and mammography technician Michelle Miller drive the van around the Houston area and go to patients who have no health insurance and provide service to hospitals that don’t have the equipment needed. Hamser said, “Over 350,000 people in the Houston area are uninsured with 83,000 of those being women over the age of 40.”
African American women are also at a higher risk for breast cancer because the cancer is found at a later stage due to lack of knowledge, said Hamser. She said that breast cancer is more aggressive in African American women and Hispanic women. Men are affected as well. “One of every thousand cases is a male,” said Hamser. “Some cases are more advanced than others because it’s close to the chest wall,” there’s no fat between the cancer and the chest wall, and men also may feel a lump but don’t get it checked out, said Hamser.
According to Hamser, the rule is that those aged 40 and over should get a checkup every year. Exceptions are considered for those who have someone in their immediate family with cancer. “If a young woman has a mother who was diagnosed with cancer at 40, then she should get a checkup ten years earlier,” said Hamser. This kind of checkup is called a high-risk screening.
For more information on cancer, you can view it through the American Cancer Society’s Web site at www.cancer.org.