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Carly Pipe was the first woman back over the line.

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Dario Grandison topped the field to come home well under 20 minutes.

‘AWARENESS GROWING’

Globeathon 2017 sees record number of participants

Thousands braved the heat on Sunday afternoon for a good cause when Sagicor hosted their 2017 edition of the Globeathon To End Women’s Cancers. With the fifth instalment of the Walk/Run moving off from the Bay Street Esplanade, a record number of participants took to the streets for the five-kilometre course.

With the starting pistol being fired just after 4 p.m., the top runners were making their way back to the finish line in under 20 minutes. Dario Grandison swept the entire field to come home in 17:01.31 minutes, while Joshua Hunte was not too far behind to stop the clock in 17:13.50. Local triathlete, Oein Josiah, was hot on the heels of Hunte as he came in with 17:17.68 minutes.

The women were competitive as well and household road running name Carly Pipe was the first lady home with 21:38.64 minutes. Gladwen Yearwood was recorded as the second-placed female with a time of 24:20.78 minutes, while third place went to Sonia Adamson (24:23.34).

In the walkers, the evergreen Rodney Blackman topped the field with 26:31.07 minutes. More than two minutes elapsed before Anderson Maughn (28:52.44) came home in second place. Eon Mitchell was good for third place with 29:28.29 minutes.

In an interview with The Barbados Advocate, Dr. Vikash Chatrani, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, said that since getting off the ground in 2013, the event continued to grow each year.

“It is fantastic! This is our fifth year now with the Globeathon Walk to end women’s cancers. Every year we have been growing from strength to strength and this is our largest turnout. We have had over 2 700 T-shirts printed, over 2 500 sold. A lot of runners, a lot of walkers showing support and the awareness is growing for these gynaecological cancers,” he said.

With the initiative created in a bid to raise funds towards the treatment of ‘below-the-belt’ cancers in women, Chatrani said that the monies were being put to good use.

“Over the years we have raised funds to develop a unit at the hospital called the Gynaecological Cancer and Diagnostic Unit. Over a quarter million dollars has been raised since the launch of Globeathon. We have refurbished the unit, we have bought an ultrasound that was donated this year to the tune of $55 000. We have ordered beds for the patients and we have ordered new equipment as well that will all benefit patients with gynaecological cancers,” he stated.

With the other major aim of the event being to raise awareness of the cancers, Chatrani said the mandate is being filled.

“I think the word is spreading. Not only do women have to undergo their pap smear. The pap smear only looks at the cervix. There are five areas under the belt that can undergo cancerous change, so the awareness is also part of it. We get more and more people coming on board, more and more people asking questions and being informed about these gynaecological cancers and the key is if we can raise the awareness to the women to the magnitude of what we have with breast cancer awareness, I think we can prevent gynaecological cancers from killing women,” he said. (MP)

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