JENNIFER Costa Mesa, CA

By Jennifer Christ

The neighborhood that I grew up in has been plagued by cancer of all kinds since I was a teenager. An amount of cancer that one person should not be exposed to in a lifetime. I’m not sure if it’s because we lived near a Marine Base, or we just had great misfortune but it was awful.

Regardless of how it started, I knew I wanted to help end it. In my early twenties I had an aunt diagnosed with Breast Cancer (now a survivor) and I have watched a cousin, and two mothers of best friend’s die from Breast of Cancer.  Enough is enough.

I first started walking the 3 day, with one of the founders of Boobs on the Move in 2004 and it was one of the most rewarding and challenging things I have ever done.  We laughed and cried and knew we were walking to help fight a disease that could one day attack us or our loved ones, but we were also walking to honor those we have lost.  I took a few years off and several years later, Boobs on The Move had become a full-fledged phenomenon.  I couldn’t help but sign up for the 3 day again, convincing one friend to do it with me, and then again the next year with 12 friends and then again.  It becomes addictive.

We are all “Boobs” as we like to call ourselves.  I recently had a friend in her late 20’s diagnosed, and it reminded me all over again, how tragic Breast cancer is and how it can strike at any time.  My goal is to walk in every city or until we find a cure, to this outrageous disease killing so many women.