By Barbara-Lee Edwards -- It's a sea of pink at Crown Point Shores in Mission Bay, where nearly 5,000 people have set up camp after the first leg of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day.
Thousands from across the country are walking for three days to honor the lives lost, celebrate survivors and promote breast cancer research. I'm walking with members of our Buddies for Life Team.
On the trek to La Jolla, I met 75-year-old George Newmmer. The retired electrician from Michigan lost a relative to breast cancer, so he encourages women to get mammograms. It's advice that helped a women Newmmer met during a 3-Day walk in Seattle.
"She was diagnosed with breast cancer. She said it was in very early stages and they got to it in time. 'Thanks to the 3-day walk I think you saved my life,'" Newmmer said.
Eighteen-year-old Jordan Carlson is among the youngest walkers in this journey of hope. She's doing it for her mom, who was diagnosed twice with breast cancer, but beat the disease.
"I have a mental picture of my mother when she was very thin, bald, and was trying to survive a massive infection that almost killed her," Jordan said.
"I have that picture of her laying in her bed. I always think of that and that's what really determines me to keep my foot in front of the other."
Amid the parade of pink, the aches, the pain and blisters, walkers say they'll keep on lacing their shoes until there's a cure.
"There's a lot of hope out there," Jordan said.
Participants will walk another 20 miles Saturday around Mission Bay.
