Saturday Morning News

Race for the Cure Gets Under Way in Washington

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MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The Race for the Cure is getting under way in Washington. The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation sponsors the race to raise money for breast cancer research and community outreach programs.

CNN's Kathleen Koch joining us from Washington with more on that event.

Good morning, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

The runners and walkers are here today to help stop a killer: breast cancer. It is the second-leading cancer killer of American women behind lung cancer. And fighting it has drawn such support that this is now the largest five-kilometer race in the world. Last year, some 56,000 people participated, and today they're expecting even more.

The cause draws a lot of support from throughout the political community here in the nation's capital. Vice President Al Gore and his wife Tipper are the honorary chairs. They'll be running in the race today. Also participating, a very large contingent from Congress, five senators and 50 members of the House of Representatives.

Vice President Al Gore spoke out yesterday at a pre-race rally about the latest medical advances in the fight against breast cancer.

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AL GORE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Starting this summer, we are going to be able to break another enemy's secret code. The messages that cancer sends from cell to cell encoded will be read, deciphered, intercepted and used to organize our battle against cancer. We are going to beat cancer. You are going to beat cancer.

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KOCH: But of course the real stars of this race are the breast cancer survivors, and they are part of something called Slim Hope. There are some 7,500 of them running or walking in the race today, and that actually outnumbers the initial number of walkers and runners in this race when it began some 11 years ago. As you can see, they're the ones behind me in the pink T-shirts. Quite a large number of them, so that's making everyone here optimistic.

Now when you look at what they have raised, $210 million over the last 11 years with this event, that money, of course, goes to breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment. And statistics show that all of that is working. Over the last 10 years in the United States, breast cancer rates have dropped by 20 percent.

Reporting live from the Race from the -- for the Cure, I'm Kathleen Koch in Washington.

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