People take part in Thiruvananthapuram run to promote cancer awareness

People from all walks of life gathered in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday to take part in a marathon to spread awareness about cancer and to raise funds for underprivileged cancer patients.

The annual awareness and fund-raising marathon witnessed hundreds of people, including women and children, coming forward to do their bit for society.

Programme coordinator Sanju said through the run they are raising funds for the cancer patients at a cancer centre.

"The main motto of marathon was to bring awareness about cancer in Trivandrum as well as raise funds for poor patients who are in Regional Cancer Centre (RCC)," he said.

People coming for treatment at the Regional Cancer Centre belong to lower socio-economic strata and despite cheaper costs and government schemes the funds at the centre are not enough because of the increase in number of cancer patients.

The theme for the marathon was titled 'Run for Life', and it started at 6.30 (IST) in the morning.

A participant at the marathon, Ajith Kumar, expressed sheer happiness on being there.

"I am really happy to take part in the Trivandrum Run which is charity run for the Regional Cancer Centre. There are lot of youngsters as well as people who are really pleased to take part in this run," said Kumar.

Established by the central and state governments, RCC is a comprehensive cancer centre for the people of Kerala and adjoining parts of southern states Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The global death toll from cancer rose to 8.2 million in 2012 with sharp rises in breast cancer as the disease tightened its grip in developing nations struggling to treat an illness driven by western lifestyles.

According to the World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), cancer deaths were up eight percent from 7.6 million in a previous survey in 2008 and breast cancer killed 522,000 women in 2012, up 14 percent in the same period.