Kayla St. Louis of Hudson (right) and her best friend Manda Lavery get ready to lead the Survivor™s Walk at the Making Strides Breast Cancer Walk at Memorial Field on Sunday. Not only was St. Louis one of the youngest survivors at 29, but Lavery helped her team raise more than $15,000 alone. This year the event raised $371,221 according to Kathi Russ, Making Strides Against Breast Cancer volunteer and board member of the American Cancer Society in New England. Russ wants to raise over $1 million in the coming years now that the event has been centralized in Concord from all over the state of New Hampshire.
Kayla St. Louis of Hudson (right) and her best friend Manda Lavery get ready to lead the Survivor™s Walk at the Making Strides Breast Cancer Walk at Memorial Field on Sunday. Not only was St. Louis one of the youngest survivors at 29, but Lavery helped her team raise more than $15,000 alone. This year the event raised $371,221 according to Kathi Russ, Making Strides Against Breast Cancer volunteer and board member of the American Cancer Society in New England. Russ wants to raise over $1 million in the coming years now that the event has been centralized in Concord from all over the state of New Hampshire. Credit: GEOFF FORESTER / Monitor staff

Four years ago, Pembroke Academy junior Grace Simmons lost her grandmother to breast cancer. On Sunday, she took an active role in stopping the disease.

“She was like my best friend,” said Simmons. “She didn’t call herself a survivor, she called herself a warrior.”

Simmons, along with her sister Lauren, began the Pembroke YOUnited team, allowing her friends and family to get involved with the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in Concord.

“I wanted to be able to stop other people from going through what my family went through,” said Simmons. “It really united us as a group.”

In a showing of solidarity with survivors and their families, hundreds of walkers participated in the annual march at Memorial Field in Concord.

Cyndey Dodge, event co-chair of Making Strides, began her involvement over 20 years ago after losing her sister to breast cancer.

When Dodge began her involvement, Making Strides had about 200 participants. On Sunday, the numbers included over 1,000 survivors, family members and their supporters. The increase in participation has left Dodge with a mix of emotions.

Back when just a couple hundred people participated in the event, Dodge wondered if few people were aware of the toll the disease took.

“Maybe back then we didn’t have enough awareness,” Dodge said. “I appreciate the hope that today brings for everybody, that they’re not alone.”

According to data provided by Louise Santosusso, vice president of the American Cancer Society, volunteers exceeded their fundraising goal by over $60,000 in 2021.

“Around the country, because of the pandemic we’re seeing about a third of the fundraising we’ve been seeing,” said Santosusso. “For you to exceed your goal is remarkable.”

Kayla St. Louis of Hudson and her friend, Amanda Lavery, raised the most money for the Making Strides event at over $15,000.

Due to the amount of money raised, New Hampshire is approaching one of the top 10 event’s for breast cancer awareness in the nation, according to Santosusso.

After the precession, survivors were honored with an annual Survivor’s Walk, where breast cancer survivors marched a short distance, before beginning the march through Concord.

Participants walked a 5-mile loop from Memorial Field. A shorter 2½-mile route was available through the city’s Langley Survivor Way.