October is usually painted pink in support of breast cancer awareness, especially during the annual Jamaica Reach to Recover (JR2R) Pink Run, but it was yesterday, Sunday, November 16, that a sea of pink took over Emancipation Park and its surrounding areas.
Like many others, the event was affected by the passage of Hurricane Melissa, sparking a number of challenges, but President of JR2R Sandra Samuels said it was important to keep the race going, especially on this their 25th anniversary of the run.
“Jamaica Reach to Recovery is not funded by any organisation. This is our one fundraiser for the year; so when you miss (that), you know what that means to your bottom line. The funds we raise, we help people who cannot afford to start their breast cancer journey, and so it was very important for us to postpone rather than cancel,” Samuels told The Gleaner.
This, however, would come with some challenges.
“We had to now change the date (originally set for October 26). At first, we couldn’t get a Sunday, and so the people who are Seventh-day Adventists were not happy, so I prayed and asked until we eventually got this day. So we are more than grateful to God for making this happen on a Sunday where people could come out,” she said.
“The other challenges, apart from finding a date, was persons being able to make it, because some persons had actually come down (from overseas) to support their friends and had to go back because of Hurricane Melissa. So it was more logistics more than anything else, because nothing else changed and it kind of gave us more time administratively to work on the run.
“Coming out to run and socialising gave us an opportunity to just feel a sense of normality again, because life has to go on and breast cancer still a keep; and so it is important that we pushed through and had the run,” she said.
“Having the run has now afforded us to even being able to assist our sister clubs (who donate to breast cancer partners) in Montego Bay and St Elizabeth and Westmoreland,” she added.
The event has a further reach, as a number of the participants brought donations to give to Food For The Poor to help those affected in the west.
“One, one cocoa full basket. I was thinking, if everyone carried one item, we would be more than able to give Food For The Poor something to put in their consolidated fund to take down to the west, because survival is survival any way you take it – they survived Hurricane Melissa, we survived breast cancer. We are one Jamaica. As our motto this year said, “Reaching hearts, restoring hope”; we want to restore hope in the west.
Although more than 15,000 signed up to run, only about 50 per cent showed up at the start line. Nevertheless, this did not have much of a negative effect on the event’s fundraising.
“You had persons asking for refunds and you had persons asking for deferral to next year, which we granted – negligible, like about three persons, but we understand because those people were from the west,” Samuels said.
With the ups and downs of the staging of this year’s events, Samuels said a number of lessons were learnt for future staging of the run.
“One was patience. We [also] have to sort out a more efficient registration system, and we are currently working on that right now to be better next year. And three, when God says to do [and] to move, that is what you have to do. I believe we are doing God’s work, because there are many persons that come out to us. Reach to Recovery is 150 strong and there are so many people who can’t afford treatment, and so we have to help our sisters and our few brothers that come in with breast cancer. So the lesson learnt is that we are our brother’s keeper.”
