Breast cancer race in LR draws survivors, family, record crowd
Posted on Sunday, October 12, 2008
To a group gathered in front of the 15 th Annual Susan G. Komen Arkansas Race for the Cure’s registration booth early Saturday morning, Betty Key was many things — just not present.
Her family and friends wore black T-shirts that read, “Betty Key is My Hope,” “ Betty Key is My Hero, ” “Betty Key is Strength,” “ Betty Key is Awesome. ” Key was diagnosed with cancer in 2001, said her daughter, Renee Riggan, 45, of Hot Springs. Two years of chemotherapy and radiation later, the breast cancer was gone.
As clouds grew pink before dawn, eight of Key’s supporters gathered at the Little Rock race. Betty Key, 61, stayed at home with her husband in Jessieville because of her health. She’s having surgery for colon cancer next week.
Riggan’s daughter, Sarah Myers, 21, said before the race: “I didn’t realize how many people had breast cancer. When we heard she had breast cancer — that day changed our entire lives.” Riggan, Myers and Key participated in the race’s Fun Walk for seven straight years.
Saturday, they again wore Tshirts designed by Riggan’s son, Wesley Myers, 26. Last year, his design featured a butterfly made of the event’s symbol, a pink ribbon. It read, “Fluttering for a Cure.” This year’s version was “Fishing for a Cure,” and added a fish made of pink ribbon by the butterfly.
With pink gel drying in his black hair, Wesley Myers stood by his wife, Carrie Myers, 26.
Wrapped around the couple’s 4-month-old puppy Lucky, a Great Pyrenees and German Shepherd mix, was another black T-shirt, with “Paw-some” scrawled in neon green.
As the group waited for the race’s start at 4 th Street and Broadway, Riggan said she had “a near-miss” with breast cancer six years ago. Over a series of biopsies, doctors found “actively changing” cells that never metastasized. She opted to have a breast reduction in 2007.
Riggan and others planned to take Key souvenirs from this year’s race. Her family prepared a goodie bag including pink bubble bath with sparkles and pink-ribboned gardening gloves.
Minutes before the race’s 8: 20 start, Riggan added some rubber band bracelets — pink for girls and green for guys — to the goodie bag and passed out others to the group.
Ten minutes later, a record 45, 928 participants surging northward across the Arkansas River caused the Broadway bridge, a suspension structure, to sway.
The effect happened in previous years, Riggan said, but, “it seems to be moving more than usual this year.”
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