Thousands of patrons crowded D’Urban Park at the dawn of Saturday, clad in their pink attire to walk and run in solidarity with cancer awareness.

The event started at D’Urban Park, then moved to the kitty roundabout and back to D’Urban Park. The walk/run, which is part of GTT’s annual Pinktober calendar of activities, is aimed at mobilising funds for several cancer-related organisations.

This year, the support surpassed those of previous years, as was confirmed by Pinktober 2019 Coordinator, Diana Gittens. Gittens said that the final count isn’t confirmed, but a significant spike was noted. “We are still finalising our counts for this year but we have noted a tremendous increase in the number of Guyanese who came out to support us. This year, some of our survivors were provided special accommodation so that even if they could not walk, they could still interact and feel a part of this exciting activity,” she said.

People of all ethnicities, religion and culture joined in unison with the activities, starting the morning off with some warm-up exercises from gym instructors, and ended with a performance from local artiste, Calvin Burnett. Despite the aim of the activity, the crowd was energised and happy during their participation in the activities. Speaking with a few of the happy people at the venue, everyone expressed sentiments of gratitude to GTT for affording everyone the opportunity to contribute to saving lives.

Gittens told the Guyana Chronicle that even though the month of activities is tailored mostly to breast cancer, other forms of cancer were incorporated. “We intend to increase our focus on the other kinds of cancer and although the event was branded pink, we support and recognised all the types of cancer this year,” she said.
She noted, too, that “Next year, we are also looking at increasing participation in the run as the time tracking system this year was exciting as the runners were happy to print their results at the finish line. Pinktober is here to stay and we will work diligently towards empowering NGOs to cater to the cancer care needs of Guyana.”

Other activities from GTT during the month of awareness included a Cancer Care Symposium that allowed various stakeholders to share their challenges and success and allowed them to identify priority areas for funding; a Novelty football match that was done in collaboration with the Guyana Football Federation, and was focused on promoting physical activity as we note that physical inactivity is one of the risk factor for cancer; and a Live Aware, Live Beautiful Initiative, which allowed GTT to honour survivors, caregivers and patients. The month is not over and Gittens disclosed that in the upcoming weeks, GTT will continue honoring cancer survivors, patients and caregivers.