Panerathon fundraiser for breast-care center draws 8,000 participants

Panerathon fundraiser for breast-care center draws 8,000 participants

YOUNGSTOWN

It didn’t take long for Kathy Baker to chase visions of the Grim Reaper out of her head after she was diagnosed last year with breast cancer.

Like many breast-cancer patients and survivors, her immediate thought upon hearing the news was that she was going to die.

“Yeah, your mind does kind of go there,” the petite 48-year-old survivor from Massillon said. “But then, almost immediately, the competitor in me, the runner in me, said I’ve got to fight. Being competitive by nature and being a runner probably has helped me.”

Baker and some 25 of her friends and family members, who’d dubbed themselves the Hot Pink Harriers, were among the 8,000 who thronged Youngstown’s downtown streets today for the fourth annual Panerathon, which raises money to benefit the Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast Care Center at St. Elizabeth Health Center.

Read the full story in Monday’s Vindicator.