Chi Omega Hosts Free to Breathe 5K October 31

Story by Anna Oakes

Strengthen your lungs through aerobic exercise and raise money for lung cancer research at the Free to Breathe Lung Cancer 5K Run/Walk and Rally on Saturday, October 31, at Duck Pond Field on the ASU campus.

The Chi Omega chapter at ASU and Susan C. Hicks Hope Charities sponsor the event. Susan Hicks, a mother of a current Chi Omega sister, struggled with lung cancer and passed away in 2006.

Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. at Duck Pond Field. The registration fee to run or walk competitively is $25; to participate recreationally, the fee is $20. Organizations can also register as a team. Proceeds will be donated to the North Carolina Lung Cancer Partnership’s awareness and research programs.

The featured speaker at the event will be Taylor Bell, a board member of the North Carolina Lung Partnership and a lung cancer survivor. Bell, a lifelong non-smoker and Chi Omega sister at East Carolina University, was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 22 and underwent surgery to remove most of her left lung, according to a press release.

“People with lung cancer, like other cancers, should have access to effective treatments and better detection,” Bell said in the release.

Lung cancer is frequently diagnosed too late because there is no standard screening test and symptoms can be subtle, the release said. More than half of those diagnosed will die within a year, and only 15 percent will live five years or more.

Quoted in the release, N.C. Lung Cancer Partnership President Amy Cipau said, “Lung cancer is the No. 1 cancer killer in this country but the least funded of all cancers. It kills nearly twice as many women as breast cancer, and kills more people than breast, colon and prostate cancers combined.”

To register to run or walk, donate money or volunteer at the event, click to www.FreeToBreathe.org.

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