Walking for Cansa

KNYSNA NEWS - The local 2021 Breastathon for Cansa was held on Sunday 31 October, featuring a 5km fun run/walk as a fundraiser for Cansa.

The walks are held countrywide annually as fundraisers that form part of the Cancer Association of South Africa's (Cansa) Breast Cancer Awareness Month programme.

Every October, Cansa strives to raise awareness of cancers affecting SA women, encouraging women to be aware of symptoms and changes in their bodies and go for cancer screening, in order to detect cancer early.

Cansa care centres around the country were given the opportunity to organise their own Breastathon locally whenever they deemed fit throughout the month. This year also marked Cansa's 90th birthday and they were therefore hoping to make the most of every Breastathon around the country.

Organisers of the Knysna event were determined to go big and put huge effort into promoting the event in order to garner as much as support on the day as possible. Their efforts paid off, as roughly 150 people pitched up to show their support for the Cansa campaign.

The participating crowd makes its way down the walkway along George Rex Drive.

The fun run/walk started from the parking lot at Loerie Park stadium at 09:00 and headed out on the pathway that runs along George Rex Drive. The route then went out along the lagoon-side pathway before doubling back the same way to make up a total of 5km.

One of the organisers, Celeste Wabanie, who works alongside the Cansa Care Centre in George, expressed her gratitude for the support they received.

"We really do appreciate everyone coming out to support us, it goes a very long way towards helping us raise awareness of the organisation and the fight against cancer," she said. "We're also very happy that we could grow from last year's event. We managed to raise around R3 000 this year, which is about double what we raised last year."

Zonette Terblanche was the first person to complete the 5km walk/run.