Every year, more than 200,000 people in the U.S. alone are diagnosed with a brain tumor
ESCANABA -- Every year, more than 200,000 people in the U.S. alone are diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Saturday, more than 100 participants pre-registered to walk in the park for brain tumor research. That's a record for the sixth annual fund-raiser, held at Ludington Park in Escanaba. All proceeds will benefit the Upper Michigan Brain Tumor Center at Marquette General Hospital, specializing in treatment and research.
Before the walkers left, they had short a ceremony remembering loved ones they had lost to brain tumors. Participants wrote their names on balloons and released them into the sky.
Organizers released one for their dad.
"After my father passed away in October of 2004, my sister Anne said, 'You know they have walks for this sort of thing; we should do something like that,' and my sisters and I, I think our first reaction was, 'Well we can't,' and that was something that Anne never said," said event treasurer Amy McInnis-Norkus.
The sisters were shocked when close to 100 participants signed up to walk the first year. Saturday, they exceeded their goal of raising $5,000 for the event.
They've raised more than $30,000 over the past six years.
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