Capitola Man Wants to Prevent Breast Cancer
By Jondi Gumz
For the past seven years, Greg Piers participated in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk. Why? Because his grandmother, aunt and cousin succumbed to breast cancer. Due to COVID-19, this year’s walk was cancelled.
Greg Piers of Capitola (left) at the Susan G. Komen walk in San Diego with his friend Karen Fryling, a two-time breast cancer survivor who has spoken to legislators in Washington, D.C., urging increased funding for research.
Undaunted, he’s going to walk around his neighborhood, Riverview Terrace in Capitola, 20 miles a day for three days, raising money for the nonprofit Susan G. Komen.
In 2013, Piers, now 72, lived in San Diego when he retired from his desk job. A tennis player, he wanted to find a way to exercise with a low risk of injury.
He picked walking. Within five months, he lost 27 pounds.
“I did not change my diet, the weight just came off,” he said.
When he saw an ad on television about the Komen walk, 60 miles in three days, he decided to participate.
He joined a team of 100 people called Powered by Optimism and began training in June for the walk in November.
Here’s how Greg Piers will do his annual Susan G. Komen walk for breast cancer this year in Capitola.
He appreciated the camaraderie and connections. One woman he walked with, a two-time “breast cancer thriver,” he met through a friend of his sister.
“What’s inspiring is the closing ceremony to the walk,” Piers said, recalling how volunteers and youth support walk in first, then the 2,400 participants, and then the breast cancer survivors.
“Everybody takes off one shoe and raises it to the sky to salute them,” he said.
Each year, he’s gotten donations from 20 or so friends.
When Piers moved to Capitola, he stopped in at WomenCare, the local nonprofit in Soquel that supports women with breast cancer, to see if he could connect with local walkers to join him on the San Diego walk.
But he learned WomenCare does not have a walk but organized a bowling fundraiser, Strike Out for Cancer, instead.
This weekend, Piers will walk a 1.25 mile-loop in his neighborhood 16 times.
Greg Piers says the community support in San Diego is amazing. So many people come out to cheer on the walkers — including those who dress their dogs and kids in pink.
He’ll be wearing pink.
He’s getting his T-shirt printed at Kris Kirby’s Sign Wave shop in Aptos. Everybody who donates gets their name printed on his T-shirt.
“This year,” he said, “ I’ll have 17 names on my shirt whose lives have been impacted by breast cancer … family members of donors.”
He hopes his wife, his sisters, his daughters and his granddaughter never have to face a diagnosis of breast cancer.
And he points out that of all people diagnosed with breast cancer this year, 2% are men.
“Hopefully, the money we’ve been able to raise will help one person,” he said. “If it helps one person, it’s worth it.”
To support Greg Piers’ walk, visit SusanGKomen.org and click on donate.
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Photos Courtesy of Greg Piers