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Go Further: Virtual Race for the Cure Is This Weekend

This one is personal. Chances are it’s personal for you, too. According to breastcancer.org, about one in eight U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. Most of us know at least eight women. One of those women will be affected.

Susan G. Komen is the largest and best-funded breast cancer organization in the United States. Our local chapter, Susan G. Komen Memphis-MidSouth Mississippi, makes sure that 80 cents of every dollar is directed to its mission, and of that, 75 percent remains local. The remaining 25 percent funds breast cancer research.

Facebook/MaryBeth Werner Connor

MaryBeth Werner Connor is a fighter.

Contemporary Media, the Memphis Flyer parent company, is once again participating this year. The team is racing through Central Gardens for our sisters, mothers, aunts, and other women (as well as men). Come down and cheer our small but mighty group to the finish line as we Race for the Cure. We’ll be starting at 9 a.m.

A childhood friend, MaryBeth Werner Connor, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, recently gave us all great news.

“All of my cancer is gone,” said Connor. “The chemo worked, and the cancer has been eaten up. No lymph node involvement. I could not have made it through this without all of my family and friends who gave me the strength to handle this and kick cancer’s butt.”

MaryBeth, this one’s for you — and for breast cancer research, so that more women can say they kicked cancer’s butt.

Komen Memphis-MidSouth Virtual Race for the Cure®, komenmemphisms.org, Saturday, Oct. 31.

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From My Seat Sports

Missing Phil Cannon

Phil Cannon

I miss Phil Cannon. The longtime director of the FedEx St. Jude Classic died last Wednesday after a courageous two-year battle with lung cancer. I last saw Phil and his lovely wife at the Liberty Bowl before the Temple game on October 6th. However sick he may have felt, he didn’t show it. Never did. Like every other time I crossed Phil’s path, he brightened my mood. I wish I’d taken more time to visit with him that evening.

Consider the impact Phil made on this entire region over his four decades in support of our annual PGA event. (Memphis was “big league” long before the Grizzlies arrived.) The city’s two most powerful, wide-reaching brands — FedEx and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital — are in the very title of the golf tournament. There was a four-year period (2007-2010) when FedEx was not the title sponsor, and those were rough years for Phil and his staff. But he lured the Fortune 500 titan back into the mix, all the while coordinating an army of volunteers that numbered upwards of 1,800, the faces and voices (“Hush y’all!”) that make the FESJC so distinctly ours. Phil could impact a boardroom packed with CEOs the same way he could an assembled group of groundskeepers, scoreboard operators, and concession vendors.

Phil was the primary source for the first feature I wrote for Memphis magazine, a broad look at the FESJC in June 1994. He treated me like I was reporting for Esquire. Twenty-one years later, I sat down with him to absorb some wisdom for Inside Memphis Business. Among the nuggets he shared: “If you’re going to need 150 carts on Wednesday but only 100 on Friday, go ahead and get the 150.” Perfectly Phil Cannon. Whether it’s transportation, catering, or restrooms, err on the side of making your customers comfortable.

The world can’t replace the Phil Cannons among us. But the kindness, decency, professionalism, humor, and courage that Phil personified live on mightily among those of us who called him a friend. And that’s a slice of immortality.

• Cancer is a monster that takes many hideous forms. Phil Cannon was in my thoughts when my family and I approached the starting line at Saturday’s Race for the Cure downtown. If there’s a more uplifting event in Memphis, I’ve yet to attend it. The annual 5K serves as a coming-out party — that’s what it is, a party — to celebrate the women (and men) we’ve lost to breast cancer, and the thousands around the world beating the insidious disease every day.

If breast cancer hasn’t impacted you personally, it surely has indirectly. (My mom and sister are breast cancer survivors.) I start the Race for the Cure each year with a lump in my throat, reading the tags runners and walkers wear to salute a loved one they’ve lost, or one currently fighting for her life. And the route makes the event so distinctly Memphis: Start in front of the Peabody, then along the river, down South Main, around the National Civil Rights Museum and FedExForum, back along Beale Street, with a finish at AutoZone Park. Whether you’re burning your lungs over the final mile, or walking hand-in-hand with a family member, you can actually feel compassion winning (to say nothing of the extensive research saving lives every day). If you were there Saturday, thank you. If not, consider marking your calendar for next October.

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News News Blog

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Moving Downtown

Elaine Hare, executive director of Susan G. Komen Memphis-Mid-South

On October 31st, a projected 20,000 runners and walkers will take to the streets of downtown to raise awareness about breast cancer. The 23rd annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K is moving downtown after a two year run in Collierville at Carriage Crossing. Before settling in Collierville, the race was held in Germantown at the Shops of Saddle Creek for 20 years.

The announcement was made today at Raymond James tower downtown. Raymond James is a major sponsor for the event, and its Managing Director Jan Gwin said the race’s move to downtown will “significantly grow awareness and prevention of breast cancer.”

Mayor A C Wharton was on-hand at the conference, commending the move. He said he lost one sister to breast cancer and has another sister currently battling the disease.

“This is a rebirth. I can think of no better time. It’s spring. The birds are signing. The trees are budding, and guess what? Susan G. Komen is moving to Memphis, and they’re bringing downtown back to life again,” Wharton said.

The 5K race will begin and end at AutoZone Park, much like the annual St. Jude race series, at 9 a.m. on Saturday, October 31st. The course will run down Front and Riverside, though South Main, and past the FedFexForum. A post-race expo at AutoZone Park will feature the Bouffants. Race registration is already open.