Creating Awareness of the Disease – Cancer Walk 2019
This year, Cancer Walk came a little earlier than usual, but it was still able to gather the support from the public in bringing awareness to the deadly disease that has been affecting the young and the old. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
It was that time of the year again where persons from across the country and even Belizeans living in the diaspora returned to the streets to show their support for those fighting the good fight against cancer. Cancer Walk 2019 saw persons of all ages come out as early as three a.m., making their way to the starting line in Ladyville and then at five, thousands of them walked, ran, rode and even drove nine miles to the Belize Cancer Society office on Mercy Lane, off Coney Drive.
Heather Reneau
Heather Reneau, Administrator, Belize Cancer Society
“This is absolutely important for us. So you see every year the Cancer Society, we make that big push for cancer walk because a part of our mandate is education and bringing awareness to the community. And when we the community out there, when we saw them out there this morning from after three—we literally had people here from three o’clock—we know that that awareness is getting there. We know that they are understanding that health is an issue, cancer is an issue and together we can make a difference. So, #IAM&IWILL. Thank you for everybody that came out for Cancer Walk ’19. We said we wanted to be over two thousand people and I am pretty sure today we had over two thousand people. We had so many buses; the buses had to stop running at five o’clock. This time they stopped at the bridge; they just had to let off people. We could not stick to the time that the buses had; we had so many people. So thank you everybody.”
The stretch is no easy feat for anyone to take on without preparation. Fitness trainer, Berisford Hauze, says you must remain hydrated among other things.
Berisford Hauze
Berisford Hauze, Fitness Trainer
“You need to make sure that you are doing short mileage before you come out here because yo wah suffer. You need to prepare yourself so you need to ensure that you have enough water to hydrate the system and then yo have wah small mint sweet or something ina yo mouth to help you attain some energy. You have to learn the control yo breathing. Yo need to control yo breathing.”
Most, if not all, of the thousands of persons who participated in Cancer Walk 2019 know someone who has survived, is surviving or has lost the battle to cancer. It is in that spirit that they come out to assist in the awareness campaign.
Jonelle Tillett
Jonelle Tillett, Participant, Cancer Walk 2019
“I have my grandmother who passed away with cancer and I had a co-worker who passed away last year and it really affected us and so I am here to show my support. I missed last year, but other than that, yes, I do it every year.”
Bernadette Ellis, Participant, Cancer Walk 2019
“I have a lot of people that have been affected, who have passed away—close loved ones as well as those who I give God thanks for surviving right now.”
Bernadette Ellis
Duane Moody
“This is the first time you are doing it?”
Bernadette Ellis
“Oh, of course not.”
Duane Moody
“Do you think we need to see more support come out for this?”
Bernadette Ellis
“Definitely. The awareness is so important and early detection. I was just sharing last night that sometimes the symptoms are there, but we don’t look after ourselves; we become personal doctors. So we do need to continue to make the awareness known and people get tested early or detected early.”
Berisford Hauze
“I support this because my family on my mother’s side, we suffer from heart problems. So in order to keep your heart in shape, you need to do cardio.”
Marlon Kuylen
Marlon Kuylen, Participant, Cancer Walk 2019
“I have been here several years already. We do it because we’ve had several family members that have died from cancer. It is a good cause so apart from donating cash, we try to do whatever we can.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
