By Dustin Brown
The crowd of thousands that spilled down Queens Boulevard Sunday during the annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk was composed of two groups of people: those who had survived breast cancer and those who came out to stand by their side.
But beyond the pale pink shirts they wore to proclaim their victory, the survivors blended seamlessly into the pack of walkers, creating a unified front against a universal scourge by acknowledging a simple truth: although cancer strikes blindly, everyone feels its gaze.
As state Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin (D-Flushing) put it, “Cancer is an equal opportunity destroyer.”
The five-mile non-competitive walk, one of more than a dozen sponsored in New York and New Jersey by the American Cancer Society, drew thousands of people who wore tiny pink ribbons and tied white and pink balloons to their arms as they raised funds for cancer research.
Former Borough President Claire Shulman, who stood at the helm of Queens government for more than a decade, was one of the many women who wore the pink shirt boasting of her personal conquest over breast cancer.
She stood at the podium in front of Borough Hall, her former office and the race’s starting point, to dole out the best advice she could give about surviving the disease.
“I have had breast cancer twice, and I’m here to tell you about it because of early detection,” she said before the walkers set out at 11 a.m. “It is not the death knell any longer.”
Her successor, Borough President Helen Marshall, offered some sobering statistics about the way breast cancer would ravage Queens, which has a population of 2.2 million, this year.
“In Queens alone, about 1,400 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and about 300 will die,” she said.
Although a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every three minutes in the United States, Marshall tackled that figure with a note of optimism. “A majority of these women, thank God, will survive because of efforts like this,” she said.
For the many survivors who stood at the front of the crowd to cut the ribbon and start off the march, the abundant turnout created a swell of emotion.
“It’s overwhelming,” said Robin Reeman, a breast cancer survivor from College Point who counsels other women diagnosed with the disease. “It’s amazing that people care enough about their friends and family and total strangers to show support.”
Even the youngest marchers seemed to know someone who had fought the disease.
“My mother was a survivor of leukemia,” said Melissa Cheng, 14, of Flushing, who marched with the United East Athletic Association. “It’s a really good cause. I’m a woman, so what if it happens to me someday?
“My aunt had breast cancer and I’m walking for her,” said 13-year-old Ashley Young of Cambria Heights, whose aunt is a survivor. “It’s good to raise money for the cancer and the treatment for them.”
Eight-year-old Mattie Evans, a student at PS 80 in South Jamaica, carried a wide sheet of poster board which spelled out in bright block letters, “I am walking for my teacher Mrs. Silverstein,” who was diagnosed with breast cancer in May.
With five sessions of chemotherapy under her belt and another three to go, 35-year-old Amy Silverstein said the support she was getting from family and friends meant everything to her.
“It’s a long struggle ahead, but I’m gonna do it,” she said, her head covered in a simple swatch of pink fabric. “I’ve decided I’m gonna live until 110.”
Dangling around her neck hung a sign which in tall blue letters shouted her defiant response to cancer: “I Will Survive.”
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
