ATHENS, Ohio -- The 2002 Komen Columbus Race for the Cure, a walk/run event that raises money to support the fight against breast cancer, will take place Saturday, May 18. More than 22,000 runners and walkers are expected to participate in this year's event, central Ohio's largest road race. The race has been held since 1993 and is supported by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the largest private funder of research, education, screening and treatment efforts dedicated to eradicating breast cancer.

"The Komen Columbus Race for the Cure," said Melanie Moynan-Smith, certified nurse practitioner and breast and cervical cancer-screening coordinator for Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine's Community Service Programs, "is more than a just an event for runners or walkers. It's a chance for people of all ages and abilities to honor a friend or family member lost to breast cancer, to show support of someone battling the disease or to help raise money to fight it."

Seventy-five percent of the funds raised through the Columbus Race are awarded through a grant process to local organizations. Fifteen organizations received funding in 2001, one of which was OU-COM's CSP. Over the last two years, CSP has received about $90,000 in support of its breast cancer programs. Its programs are the most geographically distant ones supported by the Komen Foundation, which is based in Dallas.

CSP administers breast cancer-screening and educational programs throughout a 10-county area in Southeastern Ohio through its Health Adult Project and Breast and Cervical Cancer Project. A display of CSP's breast cancer programs will be exhibited in Columbus at the race, which opens at 8 a.m.

Since 1999, the Columbus Race has raised almost $2 million and grown from 10,300 walkers and runners to more than 21,000 in 2001. The Komen Race Series includes more than 100 American cities and three cities in other countries. Since its inception in 1983, more than $136 million has been raised in support of local and national cancer research and programs, and more than one million persons have participated in the annual races.

Breast cancer is the chief cause of cancer fatalities among women ages 40 to 59 and accounts for about 30 percent of new cancer cases in women. All women, and even men, are at some risk. In the 1990s, an estimated 1.8 million women and 12,000 men were diagnosed with breast cancer. About 2,100 women in Ohio and more than 40,000 women nationwide die from breast cancer each year.

For more information, or to make a pledge/donation, call (614) 297-8155 or fax (614) 297-8152.