In today’s technologically advancing world that is under the clutches of a very fast, ‘deadlines-oriented’ and unhealthy lifestyle, statistics says that Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths amongst women worldwide, in spite of it being one of the curable cancers if detected early. The key to controlling this disease therefore, is to create awareness about preventive measures for breast cancer. ‘Pinkathon’ offers the running distances of 3 Kms, 5 Kms & 10 Kms giving each runner an opportunity, to run in their comfort zone. It is a India-wide women’s Marathon that has gained a lot of popularity in reaching out to women from all strata of society and spreading an all-round knowledge of Breast Cancer amongst them. The event encourages participation from women of all age groups in categories of Individual/Corporate/Team/Group registrations. The event focuses around incorporating a fun way of spreading Breast Cancer awareness where women do not run against each other but they run along with each other amidst men of all ages along the race course cheering thousands of women who are running. Sisterhood and bonding that comes from doing something fun together like this!
Being a SCITian and more specifically a member of the SSR (Student Social Responsibility) committee, I got an opportunity of being a part of this amazing event. The event invited elicited participation of SSR committee girl members as well as non SSR volunteer girl students from the 2014-16 through the endeavors of our Deputy Director Prof SVK Bharathi sir. Thereby, we had 17 participants, all energetic and enthusiastic about making this event a success on part of SCIT as a whole.
Thus on November 17, 2014 began our first step towards this new undertaking with getting up at 4 a.m and getting perfectly ready in the ‘I am a Pink Sister’ tagged t-shirts with the SBI logo on it- provided to us a part of the kit for the event. The kit also consisted of the ‘Pinkathon Badges’ and our registration ID cards that we had to pin up on our t-shirts. Thus at the onset of a Sunday we set out in t-shirts and tracks/jeans at 5 a.m in the ‘Symbiosis College Bus’ to be part of ‘India’s biggest Women’s run’.
The event was scheduled to be held at Mulik Ground, in Kalyani Nagar Pune. When we reached the grounds, the sun was not yet up on the sky. Amidst the cool winds of dawn we were amazed to find that the ground was abuzz with peppy music, Zumba workouts, radio news, Facebook updates and promo runs that both men and women participated in. The dancers on stage here from a renowned dance academy and they really charged up all the participants with their dazzling performance and clearly set the spirits of the participants to run the Marathon with the heights of energy. The RJs from Radio Mirchi too added fun and frolic to the event with their lively talks. In the midst of all this we found little time to click group photographs- to capture these special moments forever.
The event commenced well on time and with great pleasure and fun we ran the 3Km marathon that we were a part of, along with women ranging from little girls to the aged ones. Being amidst studies and corporate life the run gave me an opportunity to revisit my childhood again-a feeling so nice that it enlivened the school days afresh in my mind. Through the run I felt that not only the 17 of us SCITians, but the whole lot of women in the marathon, as well as the men acting as volunteers and motivators had all fused into a single instrument supporting a common cause- not only for themselves or their known ones, but also for the larger fraternity of people who have in some way or the other come across this disease in their lifetime. Just running the Marathon and going away with the ‘I’m A Finisher’ medal was not all that the event was- it was perfectly successful in achieving what its motto was. That is, spreading the Awareness of Breast Cancer not just amidst the people who had been there that day, but by unifying the entire Nation into a common platform for taking yet another moral and radical step towards understanding and controlling this disease.
