Sailing boats at After 5 years of successes Alma Life organizes, on Sunday May 6, the 6th edition of “Sail for Pink”, a big event born to promote the breast cancer awareness. The association was created by women in Thessaloniki 10 years ago and it has assisted women who suffer from cancer since then. Last Friday I went to the seat of the association and I have interviewed the psychologist who works there to ask her some information and clarifications about the day.
“First of all, who are the members of the organization?”
Apart from me and the social worker, all the rest are volunteers. We have about a thousand women members who are patients and also training volunteers who are formed through seminaries. The volunteers are an essential component because they help us in the organization of events and without them we could not do a lot of things.
“How was born the idea of Sail for Pink?”
– Well, in the beginning we did marathons and it happened for several years. Then we decided to create something more interesting and that could involve more people. The first idea was the sail, but just few people was interested in this topic, about one hundred. Consequently, we started thinking about something different and new ideas came up. Last year about five thousand of people participated to the event. We are trying to get better every year and this season is the first attempt for runners.
“What is the plan of the day?”
This year two different things happen on Sunday morning: at 10:00 the run starts from the statue of Alexander the Great and then at 12:00 the walk starts for 3 km. There will be several things until 12:00 a.m. such as music, people dancing or gifts from the associations who support us. After all of this, the traditional sail will happen. Furthermore every year, on Saturday morning, we are on the site giving the possibility to women of a free check-up and a mammogram, while in the afternoon we usually have a Pink Cocktail Party from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., open to everybody, that is our way of saying thank you to those who support us.
“Who can take part?”
Everyone can join us. Sometimes people come alone, others are in team which could be school, association teams or whatever. The three biggest teams will receive some gifts from us such as flight tickets. We hand out also T-shirts: white for who takes part to the day, pink for women who had suffered or are suffering from breast cancer and blue for the volunteers. All the T-shirts has a mermaid, symbolizing the woman and that have become also the symbol of our event. Just for taking part to the sail it is necessary to sign up to the website (http://sailforpink.almazoisthes.gr/#register).
“In the end, why is important to participate actively?”
Mainly for two reasons. First of all is essential to support all these women and don’t leave them alone. In this way they really feel happy because there are a lot of people around them. The second thing that we don’t have to underestimate is the part of prevention: the breast cancer can be defeated if it is precociously diagnosed. For this point volunteers are crucial.
This is a message of life, hope, strength, joy, energy and sport that nobody should ignore.
