A sorority of support

The woman who sang the national anthem at last year’s Susan G. Komen Orange County Race for the Cure did not then have breast cancer. This year, she’s coming back to participate in the footrace as a breast cancer survivor.

“It points out how it’s in our community and we need to educate everyone,” said Lisa Wolter, executive director of the county organization that stages the annual event to raise funds for research into breast cancer and awareness about it.

On Sunday, more than 30,000 people are expected to crowd into Fashion Island to join in on the 5-kilometer walk or run. The annual event was started in honor of Susan G. Komen, who died of breast cancer more than 20 years ago. Komen’s sister, Nancy Brinker, promised her that she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer. Today, Komen for the Cure is the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors, organizers of Sunday’s race said.

“Breast cancer has no boundaries around men, women, age, ethnicity,” Wolter said. “Everyone will be touched by it.”

One of those women is Rebecca Hultquist, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in early 2005 when she was 33 years old. It took a year of chemotherapy and, ultimately, surgery to save her life, she said. With a husband and three kids, Hultquist said she found a new source of energy: educating other young women to the fact that they’re not immune from developing it.

“So many young women are diagnosed and don’t have that camaraderie of being a wife or mother, of being older and being with others like themselves,” she said. Sunday’s Race for the Cure, she said, will let them know there are women out there like them.

“You’re in a sorority” once you survive breast cancer, she said.

Sunday’s event is the Komen organization’s largest fundraiser and an opportunity for people to meet.

“I think that people do meet and hear and share bonds and create friendships with other survivors with others who can help them,” Wolter said. “A one-year survivor who sees a 30-year survivor is inspired. They’ll live a long and productive life. They’ll talk about what to expect.”

If You Go

What: Susan G. Komen Orange County Race for the Cure

Where: The Pacific Life building at Fashion Island, 700 Newport Center Drive in Newport Beach.

When: 6:30 a.m. to noon

More Information: Call (714) 957-9157