PICTURES: Thousands descend on Watershed as Kilkenny’s ‘Pink Tribe’ turns up for Very Pink Run

USE ARROWS OR NEXT BUTTON TO SEE MORE 

The Watershed was awash with pink on Sunday with an estimated 2.5k men, women and children including lots of well-known personalities, who ran, walked, scooted and shimmied their way around the course, taking part in Breast Cancer Ireland’s Very Pink Run sponsored by Very, (Ireland’s leading online retailer) which runs up until September 8.

The annual fundraising event, has seen 86,500 participants from over 40 countries take part since its inception, raising over €6.6m (excluding funds raised at this year’s event) for ground-breaking breast cancer research.

Following the Dublin and Kilkenny events, a third live event will also take place on Sunday 8th September in MTU Cork. For those that can’t make one of the live events – participants can still take part virtually, by undertaking either 10k or 5k in their own local areas with the aim of raising funds to support Breast Cancer Ireland’s research and awareness programmes nationally.

Aisling Hurley, CEO of Breast Cancer Ireland speaking at the event said: “This year’s live Very Pink Run event in Kilkenny proves that this is THE most fun run – bar none!! The atmosphere today was electric, family-friendly and festival-like with musical entertainment, the Very Pink Support Squad out in force, and all in all a humbling and uplifting event for all members of our extensive breast cancer community. We estimate approximately 2.5k people participated today and are expecting more to take part in Cork next weekend. Every cent raised through the event will help fund life-saving clinical research and new trials – and our continued provision of good breast health and education and awareness programmes nationwide, with the ultimate goal of transforming this disease, into a treatable illness for all of those affected."

READ NEXT: British retailer M&S officially open food shop in Kilkenny

The funds raised through the event this year will be channelled into two targeted areas by Breast Cancer Ireland, namely:

1. Continued investment into research into metastatic disease progression to the brain - through an international collaboration with the Ludwig Breast Research Centre at the University of Chicago, and the BCI funded Research Centre at the Royal College of Surgeons. This highly challenging, and sometimes fatal diagnosis, requires continuous high-level investment to help identify new ways of preventing metastasis where the initial tumour in the breast travels to major organs in the body, most notably the brain. New targeted drug therapies are helping when other major organs like the spine, bones, lung or liver are affected, but Breast Cancer Ireland is working tirelessly to try to identify ways to block cells invading the brain.
2. Driving progression and speed of scientific discovery from research settings into international clinical trials – through continued investment in this area, Breast Cancer Ireland is transforming new scientific discoveries in the laboratories into timely clinical trials so as to develop newer, more effective and personalised targeted treatments and therapies into the future – thus making breast cancer a treatable illness for all.

Follow ongoing event updates on Instagram @VeryPinkRun and @BreastCancerIreland, and @BreastCancerIreland on Tik Tok, and @VeryPinkRun on X, using the hashtags #VeryPinkRun, #BestFunRunBarNone or #VeryPinkTribe