The great tide of solidarity against breast cancer once again painted the municipalities of Adeje and Arona pink, in an edition with a special flavor after two years without stepping on the asphalt.
Under the slogan Together always (Together always), the call was a resounding success and the participation record of all previous editions was broken, with more than 5,500 people and a collection that was close to 33,000 euros, as confirmed to this newspaper by the organization, amount that will be used to support patients who fight against this pathology, raise awareness about the importance of early detection and promote research projects.
The festive atmosphere was the great protagonist in the charity walk that took place, under a blazing sun, along the four kilometers that separate the Siam Mall shopping center (Adeje) and the so-called golden mile of Playa de Las Américas ( Arona), where the participants celebrated their arrival to the rhythm of the music of Joe’s Band.
Brigitte Gypen, president of the Carrera por la Vida Foundation, the organizing entity of the event in collaboration with the Adeje and Arona town halls, was “happy” and “super grateful” with the “fantastic” popular response after the last two editions will be held online due to the pandemic. “We are very happy to have been able to go out on the street again, there was a lot of desire and that has been noticed among the public,” she told this Gypen newspaper at the end of the walk.
The organizers and numerous participants kept Hilda Siverio in mind throughout the journey, a very dear patient, godmother of the 2019 edition, who is in a delicate state of health and who this year has not been able to attend the event. At the finish line all the participants chanted her name. Shouting “Hilda, Hilda”, they gave her all the positive energy possible to continue fighting the disease. It was one of the most emotional moments of the day that brought some tears to the surface. The cry of support, immortalized on video, was minutes later on the mobile phones of Hilda and her family.
The 2022 edition of the Race for Life had broad institutional support – several buses were chartered from different parts of the Island -, which was staged with the assistance of numerous public officials, including the president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martin; the mayors of Adeje and Arona, José Miguel Rodríguez Fraga and José Julián Mena, respectively, and the mayoress of Vilaflor de Chasna, Agustina Beltrán, as well as island councilors and numerous councilors.
Tourists of different nationalities, representatives of teams created online and those attending the Think Pink Europe network assembly, an organization that brings together some thirty countries and which was held the day before in the south of the Island, also joined. No On the other hand, the players of the UDG Tenerife Egatesa, godmothers of this edition, could participate, since the schedule of the Race for Life coincided with their match in the women’s soccer league.
The organization took care of all the details to facilitate participation. Thus, it set up a bus service to pick up walkers who, for reasons of health or age, could not complete the route.
The Race for Life, whose first edition dates back to 2005 in Santa Cruz, has now become the charity event that mobilizes the most people on the island of Tenerife. The attendance record was 5,200 people, a registered mark in 2018 that has been blown up by exceeding the figure of 5,500 walkers. A complete success. But, beyond the tangible data, the atmosphere of hope and illusion that was generated in the southern concentration represents the greatest psychic revulsion to arm oneself with courage and face the disease. Together forever.
