Susan G. Komen walk heading through La Jolla Friday

City News Service

Several thousand people clad in pink will head through La Jolla today during the Susan G. Komen 3-day for the Cure’s walk against breast cancer.

Participants in the annual walk, which kicked off with an opening ceremony at 6 a.m. at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, raise money to help pay for breast cancer research and services by collecting sponsorships from friends, family and colleagues.

Typically, the San Diego-arm of the national walk program raises millions of dollars each year. It is the last in a series of 14 walks held throughout the year.

Walkers wearing pink clothing and accessories will walk for about 20 miles a day, camping out overnight in pink tents provided by organizers. The roughly 60-mile, three-day route runs from Del Mar to downtown San Diego, where a closing ceremony is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

Along the route, there will be designated cheering sections for nonparticipants to support walkers. More information is available at

www.the3day.org

.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation was established in 1982 by Nancy Goodman Brinker in memory of her sister, who died of breast cancer in 1980 at age of 36. Brinker, 64, was diagnosed two years later but survived and recently wrote the New York Times bestseller, “Promise Me - How a Sister’s Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer.”