These do-gooders did not waste their breath!
Hundreds of locals strode across the Brooklyn Bridge from Downtown’s Cadman Plaza Park on Oct. 22 as participants of lung-cancer advocacy group Free to Breathe’s annual fund-raising walk, which netted tens of thousands of dollars that will fund more studies on the disease, according to an organizer, who applauded attendees’ generosity.
“We raised nearly $70,000 for lung-cancer research at this year’s event, which is just the start of the great work we will accomplish together,” said Nancy Sanford, executive director of the Lung Cancer Research Foundation. “I was so inspired by the community of lung-cancer supporters who gathered together on Sunday morning.”
Among the marchers were a Cobble Hill mom of two and her team, which collectively pooled together more than $15,000 — the highest amount raised by any participant or group at the 5k walk and run.
The local, a non-smoker who was diagnosed with stage-3 lung cancer in March, hopes the event will also raise awareness for the disease, which she said often does not get as much attention as other types of cancers.
“I signed up for this walk and made public my cancer in a way that I hadn’t before, and raised almost $16,000,” said Lila Margulies. 43. “People need to learn more about lung cancer because it’s so prevalent and it’s so much more treatable at an early stage. Statistically, more people die of lung cancer annually than breast, colon, and prostate cancer combined, yet most of the funding goes to research for those cancers.”
