Breast cancer survivor stages run to help Treasure Beach women

Fifteen-year-old James Jonker from Denver, Colorado, and 13-year-old Tyesha Bromfield, who attends Newell High School in St Elizabeth, were the winners of this year's Janette Kaloo Breast Cancer Foundation 5K Run/Walk, staged in Treasure Beach in the parish on Sunday.

They joined some 200 runners from Kingston, St James, Clarendon, Manchester and Westmoreland for the event, which is used to raise funds to help poor women from Treasure Beach and other parts of St Elizabeth pay for cancer-related expenses.

Kaloo told CENTRAL STAR that she feels she has accomplished what she set out to do this year. Now in its sixth year, she feels that by year 10, things will really be where she envisions.

"We had a successful symposium and the women got answers for the questions they had about the dreaded disease," said Kaloo, while adding that the planning has already started for next year's staging.

"I am ready for the challenge because I was lucky to recover from breast cancer, but many don't make it, so I really want to do something to help rural women," Kaloo said.

She is being nudged to move the annual event to Kingston or Montego Bay, but Kaloo is adamant that it will remain where she meant it to be, in Treasure Beach.

She envisions a time when people will flock to the beautiful south coast community for her event in the same way that they do for the popular Calabash Literary Festival.

"Everything happens in those two big cities. My event is for poor, rural women and I want to keep it in Treasure Beach. It is still near and dear to me to keep this here, so I plan to include more rural and overseas speakers and sponsors because I know it is going to get better," she told CENTRAL STAR.

Meanwhile, Jonker said he heard about the run/walk recently when he participated in the beach clean-up day organised by Kaloo.

"I took a week to train really hard and it has paid off; I won in 20 minutes, nine seconds," he said.

Bromfield, who is a third-form student, has represented her school at the annual ISSA Schoolgirls Championships in the 800 metres, but she also likes long jump.

"I finished in 21 minutes, 43 seconds this year, but I also participated last year and came second," she said.