Thousands of people are expected to gather at Soldier Field on Saturday for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, with festivities beginning at 8 a.m. and a 3.1-mile walk kicking off at 10 a.m. The event draws survivors, caregivers and families affected by breast cancer, alongside a caregiver area, children's activities and community health resources set up around the stadium grounds.
The walk is organized by the American Cancer Society, which calls it the nation's largest and most impactful fundraiser against breast cancer, according to WLS-TV Chicago. The American Cancer Society reports that one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, and the organization says raising funds and awareness remains critical to improving outcomes.
A Decades-Old Movement Born in Boston
The event traces back to 1984, when Boston cancer survivor Margery Gould Rath organized a 200-person “move-along-a-thon” that eventually grew into the national campaign now known as Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, a name the effort officially adopted in 1993. Since then, according to the American Cancer Society, the movement has raised more than $935 million through 15 million participants across over 200 U.S. communities. Soldier Field is just one stop on that national map this fall, joining similar Making Strides walks that have taken place in Central Park, Detroit's Corktown and Sandy, Utah.
Illinois has its own stake in the fight. The Illinois Department of Public Health projected that more than 11,000 women in the state would be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2024, keeping the disease among the most common cancer diagnoses for Illinois women. Nationally, the American Cancer Society estimates roughly 321,910 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in U.S. women in 2026, with an estimated 42,140 deaths expected from the disease.
Screening Guidelines Shifted in 2024
Early detection has become a bigger part of the conversation since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force lowered its recommended starting age for biennial screening mammograms from 50 to 40 for average-risk women in April 2024. The task force designed the change in part to catch invasive cancers earlier in younger women and reduce mortality. For Illinois residents who are uninsured or underinsured, the state's Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program provides free mammograms and clinical breast exams to eligible residents, funded through state and federal support aimed at reducing late-stage diagnoses among low-income populations.
Closing the Racial Health Gap
Behind the balloons and finish-line cheers at Soldier Field sits a sobering statistic driving much of the local fundraising push. Black women nationally face a 38% higher breast cancer mortality rate than white women despite a 5% lower overall incidence rate, according to the American Cancer Society, prompting the organization's nationwide VOICES of Black Women study launched in 2024 to examine the environmental and systemic drivers behind the disparity.
That gap is sharply visible in Chicago, where a Black woman living in Englewood is 40% more likely to die from breast cancer than a white woman in Streeterville. The disparity helped push UIC trustees to approve $232 million in September for a new drug-discovery and cancer-research pavilion, a 190,000-square-foot facility in the Illinois Medical District designed to boost minority participation in clinical trials. Seven Chicago radio stations under iHeartMedia Chicago were scheduled to hold their ninth annual Sista Strut 3K walk on Saturday, October 3, 2026, in Roseland, a South Side neighborhood event that benefits Sisters Network Chicago, a Black breast cancer survivorship group, as Hoodline previously reported in its coverage of the South Side radio stations' 3K walk.
Local Sponsors Power the Fundraising Push
Soldier Field itself has become something of a hub for breast cancer awareness during football season. The Chicago Bears and their philanthropic arm, Bears Care, have raised more than $2.2 million for local breast cancer programs through their annual Real Bears Fans Wear Pink campaign, which celebrated its 19th anniversary this year and has included team visits for patients at Halas Hall, as Hoodline detailed in its report on breast cancer fighter Brenda Mayfield-Anderson's day with the team.
Labor has also stepped up for Saturday's walk. The Teamsters Joint Council 25 Women's Committee served as a Pink Chair Sponsor for the event, launching matching challenge grants to raise money for American Cancer Society programs including Hope Lodge and Road to Recovery, according to the Teamsters Joint Council 25 Women's Committee. Those programs fund free patient transportation and lodging near treatment centers, giving families a tangible resource beyond the walk itself.
