Making Strides Against Breast Cancer

Since 1993, six million walkers across the country have raised more than $400 million through Making Strides events to help fight breast cancer. The American Cancer Society saves lives and create a world with less breast cancer and more birthdays - where this disease never steals another year from anyone’s life.

With your support, we are saving lives by:

•  Helping People Stay Well
• We know that detecting breast cancer early, at its most treatable stage, can mean the difference between life and death. So we provide screening guidelines, physician education, and engage in efforts to increase public awareness about the importance of yearly mammograms.
• Helping People Get Well
• Having cancer is hard. Finding help shouldn’t be. That’s why the American Cancer Society is in everyone’s corner around the clock to guide them through every step of a breast cancer experience. The Society offers free programs and services in nearly every community across the country to ensure that cancer patients and their loved ones do not have to face cancer alone.
• We are committed to connecting people facing cancer with the information, day-to-day help, and emotional support they need in the communities where they live to help them get well. Call us at 1-800-227-2345 anytime, day or night, or visit us at www.cancer.org to find out what resources are available in your community.

Finding Cures

The American Cancer Society invests more in breast cancer research to better understand, prevent, and cure the disease than in any other solid tumor site. We take pride in funding promising researchers early in their careers, and our track record is something we share with pride. Of the researchers chosen for Society funding throughout the years, 44 have gone on to win the Nobel Prize. Your support has allowed the American Cancer Society to be involved in nearly every major breast cancer research breakthrough of the last century!

Currently, breast cancer research projects are under way at institutions across the country, thanks in large part to the funds raised by Making Strides Against Breast Cancer participants. With your continued help, we can fund more critical research projects, one of which could result in a breakthrough that would lead to fewer diagnoses and lower the number of deaths from breast cancer each year.

Fighting Back

Right now, cancer can't be defeated in doctors' offices alone. We work with legislators to pass laws to defeat breast cancer and rally communities to join the fight. We need elected officials to fully fund programs that allow all eligible women to get the cancer screenings they need and treatment they deserve. The American Cancer Society, in collaboration with its nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, works hard to keep breast cancer funding a top priority for our nation’s lawmakers. Thanks in large part to donations from the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer events, our advocacy efforts are affecting many of the laws that govern what options are available for people battling cancer.

But there is more work to be done. Walk with us - and help create a world with less breast cancer and more birthdays. For more information about how you can use your voice to help fight breast cancer, call us at 1-800-227-2345 or visit ACS CAN at portlandstrides.org.

Thank you to our donors who have made the efforts of the American Cancer Society possible.  Thank you also for your continuing support in the fight against breast cancer.