Yellowknife (Sep 01/06) - The official launch of the Run for Our Lives charity marathon took place on Tuesday at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, one of the event's main sponsors.

The run, which last year raised $187,000, is unique to the North, said marketing director Kathy Fibish Mercure.

"(It makes) it possible to allow Northerners to control how funds raised by the people of the Northwest Territories will be invested in support of breast cancer programs, services and equipment necessary in the NWT."

The second annual fundraiser will go ahead Oct. 1 in five communities: Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Simpson, Norman Wells, and Inuvik. Participants are encouraged to walk, run, bike, or skateboard for one, three, or five kilometres.

Almost $40,000 from last year's event was given to national research initiatives with the rest going to programs in the Northwest Territories.

A portion of the Northern funds went to purchase a digital mammography machine for Stanton Territorial Hospital.

The machine is able to detect tumours and cysts, making it easier for the hospital to provide early detection services to people living in the territories.

"The people and businesses of the North proved themselves, once again, to be very generous," Fibish Mercure said of the 2005 run.

She hopes this year's event will raise even more money to help Northerners diagnosed with breast cancer.

Many of those patients have to travel south for treatments.

This year's official image was unveiled at Tuesday's launch. It was a photograph of a young child by Yellowknifer Evelyne Straker. Beneath the photo is the statement, "So our children never need to know what this ribbon symbolizes."

With one in nine Canadians diagnosed with breast cancer, programs that raise awareness and provide support are vitally important, according to Fibish Mercure.