Here's How You Can Help Save Lives

Start a Team
Team leaders are the heart and soul of Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. Sign up online to start your team, then invite your friends to join it. Then using the tools we've provided in your Personal Participant Center, ask friends and family to support your effort with a donation to help save lives. Find an event and start your team today.

Join a Team
When you sign up to join a Making Strides Against Breast Cancer team, you are committing to share your passion to save lives from breast cancer. Your team leader will guide you through the process and together you'll ask friends and family to support your effort with a donation to create a world with more birthdays. Find an event and join a team today.

Walk as an Individual
You may sign up as an individual, but you will not be alone. Individual walkers are part of our nationwide community of Making Strides participants. We'll be here with you every step of of the way as you ask friends and family to support your effort to save lives with a donation. And on the day of the walk, you'll stand side by side with others who share your passion. Find an event and sign up as an individual walker.

Donate to a Walker
Making Strides is more than a walk - it's a fundraising event. The dollars raised through Making Strides help the American Cancer Society continue its work of helping people get well, stay well, find cures and fight back against breast cancer, and we can't do it without your donations. Search for a Making Strides participant by name to make a donation in support of their fundraising effort.

Donate to an individual.

Donate to a Team
Have several friends all walking on the same team - no problem, support the whole team with a donation and know that you're helping create a world with less breast cancer and more birthdays. Search for a Making Strides team by name to make a donation to support their fundraising effort. Donate to a team.

Make a General Donation
Last year Making Strides raised $60 million to help people get well, stay well, find cures and fight back against breast cancer and it happened one $10, $25 and $50 donation at a time. Find an event and make a general donation.

Become a Volunteer
Making Strides volunteers are the driving force behind our incredible event. Share your passion to help create a world with less breast cancer and more birthdays by sharing your time as a volunteer. Find an event and become a volunteer today.

 
Irene Spellman is a 54-year old breast cancer survivor from Plymouth, MA.   In November of 2006, Irene went for her yearly routine mammogram. She was called back for more pictures due to something suspicious found on the films. After the second set of pictures were taken, the radiologist still saw something and wanted to do an ultra sound. The ultra sound also showed a mass, so Irene was told she needed to have a biopsy and got very nervous. She had a needle biopsy and got the bad news 4 days before Christmas that she had breast cancer, Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. Irene was devastated and fell apart.

When she heard the word “cancer,” Irene automatically thought of death. She chose to have a lumpectomy because the tumor was small, 1.1mm, which was done in February of 2007. There would be a 30% chance Irene would need another surgery if they found anything in the sentinel node. They found .8mm in the sentinel node, so she had to have another surgery in March of 2007. They took out 7 more lymph nodes and they were all free of cancer. Irene underwent 4 chemotherapy treatments and radiation. It was a long year.

Now, Irene feels great!   Irene says, “I am very grateful for the American Cancer Society. They were there for me when I had so many questions and they provided the answers 24 hours a day. I am also grateful for my family and friends. They were the best support anyone could ask for. They were always there to listen and keep me upbeat.” Being a 3-year Breast Cancer Survivor, Irene feels it is imperative to stress the importance of self-check breast exams and yearly Mammograms. In October, Irene participates in the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk to raise money for research and support services that the American Cancer Society provides. She says, “We need to find a cure to end this devastating disease.”