Around 2000 men and women ran for a distance of 5 kms, starting from Kempegowda Playground, besides New Horizon School, Rajarajeshwarinagara Bangalore and ending at the BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital Campus in Kengeri.
“Pink up the Pace”, a 5 km run for breast cancer awareness was organized by BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital in association with RunAddicts as their fitness partner, Rotary Bengaluru Gnanakshi Club as community partner and SJB College of Management Studies as education partner.
The run saw active participation from citizens, patients, cancer survivors, doctors of BGS Gleneagles Global Oncology Cancer Institute, core committee members of BGS Gleneagles ‘Sakhi’ breast cancer support group alongside members and representatives from RunAddicts, and Rotary Bengaluru Gnanakshi Club.
Flagging off the event, Biju Nair, Cluster COO, Gleneagles Global Hospitals, Bengaluru said, “Breast cancer is becoming a growing concern affecting millions of women globally. While the early detection of the disease can increase survival rates by 95%, the awareness levels among women about risk factors and screening are still relatively low. This requires for a critical need for nation- and state-wide awareness programmes, involving multiple stakeholders of society and the health system, to help improve cancer literacy in India.As part of our ongoing efforts, we have adopted several initiatives including launching a dedicated breast cancer support group earlier this month followed by several educational seminars which will continue till February 2023 covering 10,000 women in collaboration with our community partners, Rotary District Clubs.”
Speaking on the importance of early detection and screening mammography Dr Monika Pansari, HOD & Sr Consultant Surgical Oncology, BGS Gleneagles Global Hospitals commented, “Only way to encourage women in our country to undergo a mammogram is by creating awareness about breast cancer and by explaining about the benefits offered by a mammogram. Mammography is painless, simple outpatient imaging test which is recommended once in a year in women above the age of 40 years without significant family history. Mammography reduces breast cancer mortality rate by 25-30% by detecting cancer at a very early stage even before it becomes clinically palpable.”
Supporting the initiative, Mohan Devegowda, Cofounder, RunAddicts Foundation added, “Having helped thousands of people get fit, healthy and achieve their goals with regular exercise, RunAddicts is proud to be part of this breast cancer awareness campaign. The common adage – health is wealth – is indeed so true, and health is the life goal everyone should aim for. We thank and congratulate BGS GGH for all the good work in this area. We hope the citizens make good use of this opportunity and benefit.”
“We Rotary Bengaluru Gnanakshi club as part of disease prevention avenue of service, are happy to partner with BGS hospital for creating awareness on breast cancer and bring changes in community. BGS hospital has taken a great initiative to conduct this event. We support the “Pink Up the Pace” Marathon.” said Ashwin Kumar SG, President, Rotary Bengaluru Gnanakshi Club.
“Breast cancer if diagnosed early with the help of screening mammogram reduces cancer death rate, decreases the intensity of treatment, and helps in offering patient breast conservative surgery i.e., removing the cancer while leaving as much normal breast as possible. There is a myth in society about radiation exposure during mammography, but the radiation dose is too minimal to cause any harm. Benefits provided by mammography outweigh the risk of radiation exposure.” added Dr Monika Pansari.
