Four women from one family — a mother and three of her daughters — have each faced a breast cancer diagnosis, and all four are now cancer-free or in remission. They walked together Saturday as thousands filled Denver's City Park for the 2026 Komen Colorado More Than Pink Walk, an event built around exactly the kind of story their family has lived.
Out of six women in the Gomez family, four have been diagnosed with breast cancer, according to Denver7. Lisa Gomez Moore was diagnosed in 2024, and her sister, Sharon Hawkins, was diagnosed just three months later. “Our family and the core, you know, really are there for each other,” Moore told the station. Hawkins said, “I do feel so privileged and blessed that we're all standing here together.”
A third sister, Eileen Gomez, was diagnosed back in 2019. Looking back on her own experience, she said she hopes people take away the importance of early prevention education, and she urged others to get their scans because they matter.
Thousands Turn Out for the Annual Fundraiser
Corrina Steiger, executive director at Susan G. Komen, said about 6,000 people registered for Denver's walk, while 7,000 ultimately attended. She said more than $650,000 had been raised for the event so far, money that Komen says goes toward breast cancer research, screening, diagnosis, treatment and patient services, according to the organization's event fundraising page.
Steiger put the scale of the disease in blunt terms: one in eight women are diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime, she said, adding that just about everybody knows somebody impacted by the disease. Komen describes the walk as a celebration of the strength and resilience of survivors and of people living with metastatic breast cancer, per the event's event details page. A separate preview from FOX21 featured event organizer Charlotte Long discussing how the community was coming together ahead of the walk.
What Screening Guidelines Say
The timing lines up with national guidance on catching the disease early. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that women get screened for breast cancer every other year starting at age 40 and continuing through age 74, according to the task force's own recommendation. The USPSTF says both digital mammography and digital breast tomosynthesis, also known as 3D mammography, are effective screening tools.
The stakes behind that guidance are significant. The USPSTF estimates that 43,170 women died of breast cancer in the United States in 2023, and the task force notes that Black women are roughly 40 percent more likely to die from the disease than white women. Those disparities underscore why Komen frames the Denver walk, and the dollars it raises, as a direct line to screening and treatment access for people touched by the disease.
