Greenbelt Hikers Climb Sugarloaf to Fight Breast Cancer

More than 90 hikers, ages 1 to 62, from Greenbelt and communities such as Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Poolesville, Kensington, Silver Spring, Takoma Park, and Washington, DC, as well as areas in Virginia and as far away as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, donned purple T-shirts and hiked Sugarloaf Mountain on Oct. 9 for prevention.

Donna Westmoreland, board member of the San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Fund, also a Bethesda native and resident, organized an event, fittingly named Beyond the Pink – A Hike to Prevent Breast Cancer — after two of her friends were diagnosed with breast cancer within months of each other. Thirty hikers participated the first year, raising $8,000. This year, the fifth annual Beyond the Pink hike up Sugarloaf Mountain on Oct. 9 raised around $34,000, she said

Ten to 15 of the hikers were breast cancer survivors, including Chevy Chase resident Maura Vanderzon.

Vanderzon, who's been in remission for five years, said she really likes the Breast Cancer Fund because its primary focus is on identifying the causes ( e.g., environmental toxins). She's recently been speaking out about the .

My goal is to put the "Cure" people out of business by finding the "Causes" and trying to stop the prevalence of breast and other cancers in our society," Vanderzon wrote in an e-mail to Patch.  "I have two daughters, and so I'm particularly concerned for their sakes."

Westmoreland said that in the annual sea of pink it's important to differentiate between awareness and prevention — that a more participatory dialogue between companies and the government can position us to actually prevent an epidemic.

"Awareness and cure are not the whole story," she said. "How do you bring down those odds? How do you prevent it? It's purple, and prevention is power."

The tidal pool of purple and the sea of pink work together when it comes to fighting against breast cancer.

When it comes to fundraising efforts for breast cancer causes, it’s the passion, the sisterhood and the tireless efforts and the pink tidal wave that seems to push millions of volunteers into action.

There’s the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, which has raised about $400 million and has about seven million walkers in its events.

Then there’s the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF), which was founded by Janelle Hail 30 years ago. Diagnosed with breast cancer in her early 30s, Hail had a mastectomy at 34. There was not nearly as much information available then.

“Every word beyond, ‘You have breast cancer,’ was a blur,” she said.

Hail had three young sons, and she was terrified.

She later fulfilled her dream of helping others — in millions of ways. Donations to the NBCF’s Pink Ribbon Challenge go to programs that benefit women: namely free mammograms at hospitals, clinics, missions and mobile clinics.