A pink wave swept through San Diego with the commencement of the annual Susan G. Koman 3-Day Walk to end breast cancer in Del Mar on Nov. 15. Participants walked 60 miles over three days to reach the heart of Downtown San Diego, raising a total of $6.4 million. These funds will go toward funding research, patient care, financial assistance to people undergoing treatment, and working with lawmakers to make healthcare accessible for all.
Walkers For Knockers, led by captains Beth Maxey, Windy Arend, and Shannon Padgett, is a team of 13 women, each with their own reason for joining the fight against breast cancer. Some have watched their friends or family members battle cancer, while others are cancer survivors themselves.
In 2014, Walkers For Knockers was formed in honor of and named by Maxey’s late cousin, Amanda Gatto. Two weeks before her wedding, at just 24 years old, Gatto was diagnosed with breast cancer. She walked with Walkers for Knockers for several years in the Avon 39 Walk to End Breast Cancer, until her breast cancer unfortunately metastasized; she passed away on Sept. 11, 2021, after a nine-year battle with the disease.
Two months later, Walkers for Knockers participated in their first Susan G. Koman 3-Day walk in San Diego, raising $27,932. After participating in similar walks in Chicago and Boston, the team returned to San Diego this year, raising a grand total of $61,283. Gatto’s husband and son, Vince and Cohen, waited at the finish line to watch as Walkers for Knockers crossed.
The three-day, 60-mile journey came to a close at Waterfront Park, where walkers came together one last time to honor the volunteers and walkers involved, but most importantly, those who have lost their lives to breast cancer. The walkers then cleared a path, and the survivors marched down the center aisle toward the stage. As they passed, the walkers took off their shoes and raised them in the air to honor the survivors.
To conclude the event, the audience joined hands to recite the “3-Day Promise.”
“We walk because we must. We are strong because the journey demands it. Together in body and united in spirit, we lay down our footsteps for this generation and the next. This is our promise: a world without breast cancer.”
