Georgetown Lombardi Leads The Way at AVON 39 Breast Cancer Walk

Posted in GUMC Stories

May 8, 2017 – About 100 members of the Georgetown Lombardi/Capital Breast Care Center team walked 39.3 miles through Washington, DC May 6-7 in AVON 39 The Walk to End Breast Cancer, raising more than $260,000 for local, regional and national breast cancer organizations. Led by Jeanne Mandelblatt, MD, MPH, professor of oncology at Georgetown Lombardi, the team once again raised more money than any other. Since they started participating in the event, the Georgetown Lombardi/Capital Breast Care Center team has raised more than $1.43 million.

In addition to their role as participants, the Capital Breast Care Center also received a grant during the event’s closing ceremony May 7 at Nationals Park. The grant will be used to increase access to comprehensive screening services, including transportation, for more than 1,500 women living in the Washington, DC area, and continue to provide comprehensive patient navigation services to those who receive a breast cancer diagnosis.

Capital Breast Care Center supporters in matching blue t-shirts cheered for the walkers at a cheer station in the morning on May 6 just past the 12th mile marker at Foundry Branch Valley Park. MedStar Georgetown University Hospital supported the walk by providing volunteer medical services as the AVON 39 medical sponsor.

In its 15th year, AVON 39 Washington DC raised more than $4 million and drew more than 1,700 participants from 43 states and DC, including 284 breast cancer survivors. “Since 1992, the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade has been committed to enabling access to medical advances and support services for breast cancer patients, particularly those from vulnerable populations,” said Jill Surdyka, AVON 39 national ambassador. “The $4 million raised this weekend will allow us to continue this important work with our beneficiaries in the Washington, DC area and across the nation, with the hope that one day, we will obliterate breast cancer once and for all.”

Since the event series started in 2003, more than 235,000 participants have raised nearly $620 million to increase access to breast cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment, and support research and education.