Participants walk in the 13th annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Sunday on the UTC campus. The race is meant to honor the lives lost to breast cancer, raise money for the battle and celebrate those who have survived the disease.LEARN MOREInformation on the Chattanooga area Susan G. Komen Foundation is available at www.komenchattanooga.org
Quintana Lackey has participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure every year since it began.
Lackey, 47, who lives in Nashville but grew up in Chattanooga, and her family have gathered in Chattanooga for 12 years to honor her mother, Shirley Bowman, who died of breast cancer in 2001. Bowman organized her family to participate in the first walk in 2000.
“This is something she started, and we want to continue it,” Lackey said. “I think she’s smiling down on us and is happy that we do it every year. I’m hoping that if I’m gone, my nieces will carry it on, too.”
The Race for the Cure began in Chattanooga in 2000, according to Sarah Bowen, president of the local chapter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The chapter serves 16 counties in the greater Chattanooga area. Komen Chattanooga gives 75 percent of its earnings to local breast health programs such as the MaryEllen Locher Foundation scholarships, a mobile mammogram van and education for organizations such as Girls Inc.