Racing For The Cure

The days have been glorious here recently. Flowers have been luring travelers with color, scent and nectar. The Fairegarden clan traveled for a worthy cause.The Sun Sphere in Knoxville, leftover from the World’s Faire that was held here years ago,  was the site of the Susan G. Komen race for the cure, a fund raiser for breast cancer research. Thousands of men, women and children participate in this yearly event which features runners and walkers sponsored by companies and individuals with the funds used to help find a cure for this dreaded disease. Awareness has been raised along with the wealth needed to keep the research going.One of our clan, sister of The Financier, Aunt Lynn is a survivor of seven years from breast cancer. In addition to her name being honored, the name of fellow garden blogger from the UK,  Zoe of Garden Hopping  was added as an honoree. She was recently diagnosed, surgeried upon and radiated for this same scourge. Read about Zoe’s journey here. We thought of her and all others who have been touched by this as we walked with thousands of people bearing the names of friends and loved ones on their backs, both living and gone. Pink is the color of the day.There was entertainment along the three mile trek to help us get up and down the steep streets of downtown. This fellow was playing a short trumpet type instrument very well, a bluesy jazzy number. It was excellent.Cheerleaders and mascots from many of the local high schools were there in addition to  well wishers, singers, baton twirlers, dance groups and sports teams, all yelling and waving to spur us on.As we neared the finish line, volunteers were steering the survivors, wearing the light pink shirts, to keep to the right to go through a special arch to be congratulated, hugged and given a pink carnation, each and every one. Our Aunt Lynn made her way through as we watched with pride and love while we walked under the big balloon hoop.Regular readers will know that we don’t like to put our face out there in the blogdom, but this is a special case. Aunt Lynn, the Fairegardener and offspring Semi’s offspring, LTB proudly posed for the camera this time.  Remember this, the greatest risk factor for having breast cancer is being female and growing older.
Frances