Running circles around the White House to end cancer
Sunday - 9/9/2012, 1:06pm ET
Andrew Mollenbeck, wtop.com
WASHINGTON - While President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney enter the sprint for the White House, a weekend relay around the famous grounds hopes to appeal to all political persuasions.
Surgeons, cancer survivors, patients and other supporters are taking turns lacing up their trainers during the Relay Round the White House.
"We have about 60 runners taking two-hour time slots, either individually or in groups, and running around the clock for 72 straight hours," says Karen Bate, the marketing manager for the National Race to End Women's Cancer.
"We started at 8 a.m. Friday morning and we're finishing up at 8 a.m. Monday morning to raise awareness about women's cancers - these below-the-belt, reproductive cancers."
With Washington's political divide in mind, Bate says this fight has a transcendent appeal.
"This is a very bipartisan disease," she says. "President Obama's mother died of ovarian cancer and presidential candidate Mitt Romney's mother-in-law and Ann Romney's grandmother all died of ovarian cancer."
The weekend relay is a precursor to the National Race to End Women's Cancer. That event is Sunday, Nov. 4.
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(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
