Breast Cancer

Lolita Harper BURBANK -- If kids want to dress up as Burbank's newest heroines for Halloween, the costume is simple. It requires a T-shirt, shorts, a pair of tennis shoes and a pink ribbon to pin on their chest. That is the uniform four Burbank women wear while fighting breast cancer -- a villain that will kill an estimated 41,200 women this year alone. Joy Valento, 56, Sandy Sessinghouse, 53, Cathy Schwalm, 55, and Mary Searock, 53, plan to walk in the Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day, a fund-raiser starting Friday in Santa Barbara and ending, three days and 60 miles later, in Malibu.

Irma Lemus MEDIA DISTRICT NORTH -- Olympic gold medalist and breast cancer survivor Peggy Fleming will be the featured speaker at a special presentation about the disease. The free event will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. on Oct. 17 in the Providence St. Joseph Medical Center auditorium, 501 S. Buena Vista Street. Fleming, a former champion ice skater, will deliver a personal account of her battle with breast cancer and bring attention to new breast cancer research, organizers said.

Jenna Bordelon BURBANK -- An extended trip abroad after college changed Sherilyn Canady's outlook on life forever. "My two years in Europe far surpassed my college education in terms of survival skills," the Burbank resident said. "What I realized is that I was very lucky." "What was really important to me was my health and my support system," she said. In her position as coordinator of the City of Hope Walk For Life Against Breast Cancer, Canady uses anything but luck to push for money to fund needed research.