by senior contributor Brendan Kownacki
Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki
Champion wrestler Hulk Hogan and international singer-songwriter Matt Goss were two of the more famous names at the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Washington DC, but they were not nearly alone in their fight standing against cancer. Joined by 15,000 participants at this year’s walk, the spirit was high and strong and hope blustered through the air that one day we’d be able to beat cancer for good. Among the crowd were more than 1,500 cancer survivors and this year’s event raised more than $1 Million.
“The fight against breast cancer in the National Capital Region is very personal for me,” said Judith A. Salerno, M.D., M.S., President and CEO of Susan G. Komen. “This was my home for many years and where I focused my medical career before joining Susan G. Komen. It’s where I volunteered at local community clinics and it’s where we continue to work very hard to drive progress in medical research, health care policy and patient-care initiatives.”
Hulk Hogan
The fight is personal for nearly all participants though, because more and more it seems that cancer finds a way to touch everyone’s life, whether it be directly or one or two steps removed. Hulk Hogan, the 2015 Grand Marshall for the race revealed to Hollywood on the Potomac that one of his nieces was recently diagnosed with cancer and so he feels the sting of that personal connection. Hogan noted that he hopes the research and initiatives driven forward by Susan G. Komen might be able to rid the world of Cancer as his 27-year-old daughter Brooke grows up, and many other young women with her.
Matt Goss came to this year’s Komen event having unfortunately lost his mother to cancer last year, but the strong-willed musician wanted to help those still fighting to embrace an attitude of resilience going into it. Goss kicked off the opening ceremonies of the race with a performance of his song “Strong” which has been adopted as the official anthem of Susan G. Komen. Goss shared that he wrote the song as his mother battled the disease and that over time, he realized the power of his message in song and how it could be shared beyond his own personal connect. Online, he hopes the message spreads person-to-person through the hashtag #Strong which has helped to band together the brothers and sisters in arms who face this global battle against cancer together.
Matt Goss #strong
The social component online of this year’s race was very apparent as groups and teams and individuals snapped selfies and were noticeably tweeting and posting from across the race course, but there has always been an inherently social aspect to the race, beyond online. The Race for the Cure has always been about a community of people fighting under one banner for a cure, and while it might be about raising funds or awareness, the number one thing is about raising spirits and letting anyone facing this battle past, present or future, that they will not be alone in the fight. And together, one day we’ll win this fight–hand in #strong hand.
Hulk Hogan and Matt Goss on the Race for the Cure:
#STRONG
