It was a sea of pink yesterday in Denver as 65,000 turned out to race for the cure for breast cancer.

Sunday was Denver’s 14th annual Race for the Cure, put on by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. What started with just a few thousand people has grown to be the largest Race for the Cure event in the nation. Both the number of people participating in Sunday’s event and the amount of money raised – more than $1 million just in pledges to runners as of Sunday morning are expected to set records for the event when tallied, said Dana Brandorff, a race spokeswoman. Proceeds go to benefit breast-cancer education, screening and treatment programs in the metro area, and cancer research projects.

Almost everyone knows someone whose life was changed or ended early due to breast cancer. Here is the American Cancer Society’s 2005 report on breast cancer (pdf). It includes:

….estimates of new breast cancer cases and deaths for 2005, as well as information on factors that influence survival, known risk factors for the disease, prevention details, early detection and treatment methods, and research currently being conducted on breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the second most common form of cancer in women, the first being skin cancer. More information about the disease is available here.