Mumbai holds marathon for cancer awareness

New Delhi News.Net
Monday 2nd February, 2009 (ANI)

Mumbai, Feb 2 : The Canadian based Terry Fox Foundation, which aims to raise funds for a cancer research project, held a marathon here on Sunday to create awareness about the deadly disease.

Hundreds of students and some Bollywood film stars took part in the run.

The run also aimed to raise funds for cancer patients at the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai.

Nagma, a bollywood actor, a patron of the event for past five years, said she believed it was an honour to be associated with such a noble cause.

"I just appreciate everybody's spirit and the way they've helped. All the children came for this lovely cause. All the schools coming together is a wonderful spirit to see. Functions like that creates more awareness," said Nagma.

Gul Kriplani, an organiser of the Terry Fox run, said it was getting all round support.

"I can say that this work cannot be done by just one person. It's all teamwork. The team has really worked good. We have collected around rupees 55 lakhs," said Kriplani.

To date, more than 400 million dollars has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry's name through the annual Terry Fox Run, held across Canada and around the world.

Terry Fox, a Candian who was affected with bone cancer decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research and help young children suffering from cancer and since then an annual run is organised in different countries, becoming the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research.

According to WHO reports, more than eleven million people are diagnosed with cancer every year, with 800,000 cases being reported in India alone.

Cancer causes seven million deaths every year, which 12.5 per cent of deaths worldwide. It is estimated that by 2020, there will be 16 million new cases every year.

Cancer is projected to become the leading cause of death worldwide in 2010, passing heart disease.

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