20 Years of Celebrating Survivors

Actress and former Northwestern oncology nurse Bonnie Hunt, joined cancer survivors, their families and friends, to celebrate National Cancer Survivors Day, Sunday, June 2, at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University's 20th Annual Cancer Survivors' Celebration and Walk and new 5K run.

The actress hasn’t missed the annual event since it started two decades years ago.

“You are all making an investment in your own karma by being here today," Hunt said. "Taking the time to walk the walk. That is what it’s about."

Close to 800 survivors, Lurie Cancer Center physicians, scientists and health professionals were among the 4,000 registered participants who weathered rainy conditions to celebrate cancer survival.

“It is humbling, in a way, to know, that you are not the only one,” said Sam Rahima, a newly diagnosed breast cancer survivor who took part in the walk for the first time.

Many advances in treatments and cures have been made at the Lurie Cancer Center since the first walk in 1993 -- but center director Steven Rosen, M.D., said this is just the beginning.

“Twenty years and so much progress, it’s quite amazing, and yet we have many challenges that we recognize, and the goal is every year we have more and more survivors,” Rosen said.