Racing Against Breast Cancer

October 24, 2009: Cairo, Egypt. It took us nearly an hour to pull up to the pyramids in Giza for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. We had expected only 3000 racers in a country where breast cancer is called The Evil Disease, but word had gotten out that over 7000 had actually registered to run. When we drove up next to a bus full of Egyptian women wearing racing t-shirts and pink head scarves, my heart jumped: Admitting you have breast cancer —by wearing a pink t-shirt or pink head scarf —in Egypt today is like admitting you had AIDS back in the 1980s in New York. It is totally taboo. As we waved to the women in the other bus, they waved back —an amazing moment of bonding. In fact, the entire day was an amazing moment of cross-cultural sharing.