Pic: Narayan Pissurlenkar
PANAJI
With the objective of creating awareness about women's health and fitness and raise awareness about breast cancer, Miracle Munj and Vasco Sports Club in association with United Sisters Foundation is all set to conduct 'Goa Going Pink', a women-only run on April 17, 2016, at Miramar Circle.
Goa Going Pink is an umbrella event under India Going Pink, a concept initiated by United Sisters Foundation (USF), an NGO which works for empowering women through fitness and which also organises the popular Pinkathon, a 10K run for breast cancer awareness. After beginning with its activities in Mumbai 2012, the USF will be bringing its cause for the first time to Goa this April. The event will see 3-km, 5-km and 10-km run.
“In India, health is not yet a priority and women in fact are encouraged to neglect their health. Even though running has become popular, women participation still remains low,” said actor and fitness enthusiast Milind Soman, who is the brain behind Pinkathon. “When we first decided to start this event, people told us that women would not be interested in it and have no time. However at our first Mumbai event, 2,000 women showed up while 3,500 turned up in Bangalore. Our effort to take it to other parts of India last year saw a total participation of 65,000 women. This shows that there was a requirement for such a space.”
Soman further stated that their focus was on women as they are the key to change. "If women understand the importance of fitness, then they will raise fit families too as well as impart the value of staying fit,” he says, illustrating the example of his own mother who hails from Nerul, Goa, who runs the Oxfam Trailwalker event every year and thus inspired him to be fitness conscious. “People have also commented that women are always active “ be it in cooking, looking after the kids or running their business, etc. My point is that in all this, they are not doing it for themselves. And Pinkathon is not just about physical fitness, it is also about being mentally, emotionally and spiritually fit,” he said, adding that he hopes to see everyone from college students to house wives at the upcoming event.
SP Priyanka Kashyap who is the brand ambassador of the Goa leg stated that there is a need to create more awareness especially about breast cancer in the State. “ 90 per cent of breast cancer cases can be cured if detected early. However, unless we or our close friends or family personally experience this disease we do not give much of a thought about it,” she said.
