It was the teal deal!
Thousands of do-gooding New Yorkers from Brooklyn and beyond turned out for the Teal Walk–Run in Prospect Park on Sept. 12, raising money to fight ovarian cancer and having a great time while doing it, according to one participant.
“It was awesome,” said Nicole Shapiro, whose mom Jackie is a six-year survivor of the deadly disease. “We were dancing during the warm up, we did the walk, and then we did a pizza party afterwards, and ate all the calories we walked off.”
Windsor Terrace ovarian cancer group Teal — or Tell Every Amazing Lady about Ovarian Cancer — has been running the fund-raising march for seven years. The event is now the largest walk and run for ovarian cancer in the city, and has raised more than a million dollars.
This year’s attendees, most of whom donned bright teal-colored clothing for the event, made great strides towards meeting the foundation’s $250,000 goal for the event — the tally was at $241,567 and rising as of press time.
Shapiro, who has participated in almost every Teal Walk, named her team “Jackalicious” in honor of her mother and said the event was a great way to honor the heroic survivors of the disease that claims more than 15,000 lives per year.
“The organization really does make the survivors feel very special,” she said. “They’re like stars for the day.”
Shapiro said her mom was lucky enough to catch the disease in its earliest stages, but many aren’t — there is still no reliable screening method for ovarian cancer so it is notoriously difficult to detect, according to Teal.
