One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. It’s a statistic that many students have heard before, but never sinks in until it’s too late. That was certainly the case for Chelsea Bush, a senior in Wichita State’s social work program.

Seventeen years ago, at the age of 39, Bush’s aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. She survived chemotherapy, but eight years later, the cancer was back. After many visits to the hospital, Bush’s aunt received Hospice care for two more years before she died in November 2005 at the age of 49.

“My grandma and I had been spending her last week with her while I was on Thanksgiving break as a freshman in high school,” Bush said. “Last year, I ended up getting a breast cancer ribbon tattoo on my wrist as a reminder of her life.”

For the past six years, Bush—along with her mother and boyfriend—has been participating in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure to support her aunt and others that have been impacted by breast cancer. This year, Bush joined Dr. Natalie Grant’s School of Social Work team for this Saturday’s race at Towne East Mall.

WSU women’s basketball coach Jody Adams has also been a huge advocate for the race.

“This is something I’ve been involved with since I’ve come to Wichita State,” Adams said. “There are so many of us that have been touched by this. We’ve had teammates … that have had breast cancer. We have lost grandparents. We’ve lost people on our staff. This is very sentimental to all of us.”

Because of Adams’s efforts, the women’s basketball team volunteers every year. The players hand out water bottles to runners, work tents throughout the course and cheer on their mentors—women who have survived breast cancer and who are also spreading awareness.

For Lindsay Smith—executive director of the mid-Kansas Susan G. Komen affiliate—awareness is essential in lessening the amount of women, and men, who suffer from breast cancer.

“Young women do get breast cancer, and for a long time we didn’t think that they did. But they do. So the awareness of breast cancer for both young men and young women on college campuses is really important,” Smith said.

Another message Susan G. Komen emphasizes is early detection.

“One of the things that is so important is to know your ‘normal,’” Dana Steffee, program coordinator at Susan G. Komen, said. “And that starts with whatever age. That means know what normal is for your body. Because you’re really the one that is going to find it first, whatever is not normal.”

Awareness and early detection are two main points the Susan G. Komen foundation try to stress at Race for the Cure and other events and information tables. In addition to partnering with sports teams on campus, Susan G. Komen wishes to reach out to other organizations.

“I know there are other affiliates that do presentations on campus,” Smith said. “I would love to see us be able to do that.”

Smith and Steffee hope to get more Wichita State involvement in events like Race for the Cure, or even just events on campus. But for students like Bush, getting involved in the race is more than just a way to spread awareness.

“The walk gives me a way to remember [my aunt] and celebrate her on a day that I like to say is just for her,” Bush said.