3,000 gather to run for Breast Cancer Awareness in Buckhead

All right, guys, let's move forward here and continue talking about health news. Our Maria Guzman is joining us live now. There's a breast cancer awareness event happening to honor survivors and those who have lost their struggle to breast cancer. And Maria, I see people walking behind you already. Talk about what's happening this morning. Hey, Jasmine. Good morning. I'm here in Buckhead, and this is where the race for the cure is happening. It's hosted by Susan D. Coleman and this is actually the 44th year of this charity run and walk that's happening here in Atlanta and right now you see participants that they are making it through the finish line. I'm going to go ahead and flip my camera to show you guys an active very live picture here what's happening in Buckhead. So we have about 3,000 participants over 3,000 participants according to Susan G. Komen's website here in Atlanta. One of those participants is Ashley. Now Ashley is here. This is her first year that she is doing this charity run and walk and she herself is a cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with breast cancer about three years to go this month. So she feels very excited to be here and she has a group of women who have done it with herself as well. So let's go ahead and listen to her story. So I was 34 years old. I was weaning my son who's nine months old from breastfeeding and I found a mass. Fortunately, unfortunately I'm BRCA positive so I had a doctor already on call for a breast specialist. So I I called her, said I found a small lump, got in a couple weeks later, did my biopsy, and cancer was kind of expected, I guess. My mom's a two-time survivor, so it wasn't a huge shock necessarily from my end, but not news that I wanted. The scary part was when I found out I had lymph node positive cancer, so it was also breast cancer and it spread to my lymph node, so that was the scary part, but my team did a great job. I was diagnosed in October 2023, and then I started chemo in 2024, and then had my double mastectomy in May of 2024. And all my pathology came back cancer-free, but because of the lymph node involvement, I also did radiation before we started reconstruction. And then with reconstruction, so I'm cancer-free now, I have been since my double mastectomy, but my reconstruction process has taken longer due to skin complications after my reconstruction last year. I got an infection so I'm hopefully one surgery away from being fully reconstructed and done with this process. It's amazing to look around. I just got goosebumps to see all these people here to love and support and share and stand up and the best we can do especially as survivors is to share our story so other women I mean I'm 36 years old still on the journey you know so with two young kids so if I can tell women know your body check your body be positive about your body and ask the questions to your doctor when you find them that's all we can do while we're here. Keep going, that's all we can do. Every day is a new battle. I'm in medical menopause at 37, so I feel like it's constantly, every day is a new journey. I feel like once you have cancer, even once you're cancer-free, that survivorship is different for every person and looks a little crazy every day, ups and downs, but we keep going and we're making it happen, so hang in there, stay positive, and let your body do its work. Thank you for all the ladies here supporting me today too i've got a group of about 10 women who are here to walk with me and have supported me through my journey so i'm happy for each one of them to be here so again over 3 000 participants here at this 5k charity walk and run and as you can see there's a lot of pink what's really special is that this race has really united people from all backgrounds from all ages i see a lot of families here and you know a lot of these people either know someone who they have lost to breast cancer or they're walking this run and walk for someone who is in that journey. So it's happening all here in Buckhead and this race and walk is about to wrap up soon. So I'll send things back to you Jasmine. All right Maria thanks so much for joining us to talk about this event here. We'll check in with you a little bit later. They have been doing that for 44 years. The Susan G Atlanta race for the cure with Maria Guzman a littl