Dorothy Westerman
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 22/05) - Four Yellowknife women are lacing up their shoes for a 60 km walk against cancer.

Corinne Paul, Wendy Carter, Gail Bennett and Karen Marshall are in training for the walk in Calgary known as the Weekend to End Breast Cancer Aug. 12-14.

"We all decided to do this back in February, so we've been making an effort to walk more every week," Marshall said. "And we got new shoes and we're breaking those in," she said.

While they are enjoying the fun side of preparing for the walk, their motivation is sombre.

"I've lost three very close friends with young families, so it's something positive," Bennett said.

Each will have to raise a minimum of $2,000 to participate in the walk.

They are selling boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, which will flown from Calgary June 28th by Canadian North.

All money raised in the walk will be donated to the Alberta Cancer Board and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre.

The board works with the Stanton Territorial Health Authority and supports the development of a cancer centre for Yellowknife and the NWT.

Because radiation treatment is not available in Yellowknife, about 100 cancer patients from the NWT accessed services in Edmonton and Calgary last year.