Great Bay:--- Despite the inclement weather which threatened the island yesterday, scores of people from various organizations and businesses turned out to participate in the 'Pink Parade'.Dressed in pink and braving the weather, scores of participants lined up at the John Larmonie Center where they marched to the beating of drums of the Brigade Band and Yumay Band along the Long Wall Road, to Front Street then to the Boardwalk and finally ending at the St. Rose Café Philipsburg kicking off the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The walk which was in honor of those who have lost their lives to breast cancer, a salute those who have survived it and an encouragement to people who are still engaged in the battle against breast cancer, was carried out under the theme "Early detection saves lives."
Organizers of the walk said they were extremely pleased with the turn out despite the threat of rain and were even more pleased with number of young people who participated. Shelly Alphonso of the Positive Foundation said that it was a pleasant surprise to see the response of the St. Maarten community. "I am really pleased with the many people who participated and they all participated for their own reasons," she said. "Some walked because they really wanted to spread awareness, some walked because they were actual breast cancer survivors and others were there because they wanted to support someone they knew who is now battling breast cancer."
Among the hundreds of people who joined the Pink Parade were Island Council lady; Sarah Wescott-Williams, French politician Alain Choisy and radio personality Elektra who all gave brief speeches about breast cancer.
Wescott-Williams in her address revealed that her motivation and contribution to the Pink Parade was also because of her mother who is a breast cancer survivor for more than five decades now.
"I really want to thank everyone who came out because this is our first breast cancer walk and it was really successful," she said. "It was pink all over and we were able to start on time and more importantly it was incident free."
Among the participants were representatives from Nagico Insurances, Divico, the Windward Islands Bank, AUC, St. Maarten pride Foundation, Telem and several nurses from the St. Maarten Medical Center.
Ms. Alphonso also extended thanks to the main sponsors of the event: Heavenly Water, Nagico and Divico and is reminding the general public that free breast screening exams will be conducted at various doctors' offices across the island and will be announced via the media.
