3-Day walkers keep up breast cancer fight

Mesa, Arizona - On day two of the Arizona 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk, Gilbert resident Lisa Virgadamo sat on the ground along the 60-mile route somewhere in south Phoenix getting her feet rubbed by her husband.

Slideshow: Arizona Breast Cancer walk, day 2

Walk to fight breast cancer starts Friday

3-Day Cancer Walk begins Friday

On day two of the Arizona 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk, Gilbert resident Lisa Virgadamo sat on the ground along the 60-mile route somewhere in south Phoenix getting her feet rubbed by her husband.

Slideshow: Arizona Breast Cancer walk, day 2

Walk to fight breast cancer starts Friday

3-Day Cancer Walk begins Friday

As the Saturday lunch crowd gathered around at one of five pit stops along the three-day walk route, Virgadamo wore a pink cape, pink paint beneath her eyes, and an exhausted smile.

Virgadamo was one of about 1,700 registered walkers, some of whom slept in tents in Tempe's Benedict Park after trekking 20 miles the day before.

"I stayed in the tents; everybody was tired," Virgadamo said.

The walk started Friday and traveled through Gilbert, Chandler and Mesa, ending in Tempe at night.

Saturday continued in Tempe and carried over into Phoenix.

Sunday will connect with Scottsdale, where the event culminates in a ceremony.

Each walker had to raise $2,300 in order to participate, according to walk officials.

Officials said 85 percent of the money goes to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and the remaining 15 percent goes to the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund.

Walk officials said this year they had noticed a decline from last year's participation level, which was at 2,000 walkers. This year saw about 300 fewer walkers.

National walk spokeswoman Jenne Fromm said she has participated in all of the walks in 15 cities nationwide, except for the last leg in California.

"I have lost way too many to breast cancer," Fromm said. The breast cancer survivor said she lost her grandmother and a good friend to the disease.

The throngs of walkers were only overwhelmed in number by the groups who came out to support them, including family members and personal cheering sections of friends and partners.

At a rest stop in a Phoenix park, women dressed in pink waitress outfits served up lunch to hungry walkers.

The captain of the self-named "Lunch Ladies," Jennifer Hood, said she had more than 20 volunteers whose sole purpose was to keep the walkers fed.

"We have chicken Caesar wraps today; grapes, water," Hood listed during the Saturday lunch crowd.

The walk will end Sunday with a closing ceremony at Scottsdale Stadium, 7408 E. Osborn Road.

But there were still more miles ahead in the walk after the Saturday lunch crowd began to break.

Virgadamo said she was ready to finish off the day's walk thanks to the "Lunch Ladies."

Touching the pink cape tied to her back, she reflected on the 10 miles before her: "It'll help me fly to the next place."

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