Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Canadian woman and thousands will take to the streets across the country this weekend to raise money for a cure.

On Sunday, survivors and their supporters will lace up across Canada to take part in a five kilometre run or one kilometre walk for the CIBC Run for the Cure.

The annual event is the largest, single-day, volunteer led fundraising run for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

“We have a run in over 60 communities across Canada on the same day, which is really cool. I know last year we raised over $20 million for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation,” said Kirsty McGowen, Run Director for CIBC Run for the Cure. “Calgarians are extremely generous when it comes to donating to charities and breast cancer is something that affects a lot of people, unfortunately, myself included, so I know that it is something that is close to a lot of people’s hearts so we do get a lot of people who are really engaged in the organization and the run, which we’re really grateful for and we’re excited to have them back this year.”

In Calgary, 5000 people are registered for the run and all the money raised will be used for breast cancer research into prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.

Michelle Hogaboam found a lump while she was in the shower and was diagnosed with breast cancer in the fall of 2012.

“I was 33 when I was diagnosed, which is really young for cancer and breast cancer specifically and when a tumour develops in a young woman it typically shows up as very aggressive and that was the case for me,” she said.

Hogaboam was at a conference in Vancouver when she got the news from her doctor and says thankfully the tumour was caught early but she still had to undergo extensive treatment.

“I went through eight rounds of chemotherapy, 28 rounds of radiation, a yearlong of injections to help battle the protein that had developed around the tumour and I’m on hormone therapy that I will be on for the next ten years of my life,” she said. “Just hearing the words, I’m really sorry to say but you have cancer. And the shock of hearing those words and having it be real is nothing but bewilderment. It’s shocking, you’re confused, what does it mean? I became really angry at myself because I felt like it was like a betrayal of my body.”

She got married last year and says the silver-lining was that it brought her and her husband closer together. “Having to tell your partner that you have cancer was gut-wrenching. It was harder telling him that I had cancer that it was to tell my family,” she said. “Just because of the level of involvement, having your partner go through it with, it was hard but there was no question. He was like okay this is what we have to deal with. Let’s do this.”

In 2013, Hogaboam was in the middle of treatment when a number of her friends in Calgary and Vancouver decided to do the run to support her.

“I remember feeling really tired and kind of worn out that morning but I was like, I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this and I’m really glad I did because when you get there it’s electrifying, you are in amongst thousands of people and there’s just so much energy and it’s really vibrant and when you’re doing the walk itself, the whole community gets involved.”

An estimated 25,000 Canadian women and 220 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and Hogaboam says the run is important to raise money and moral.

“The benefit of the run is amazing because the majority of the money goes towards breast cancer research and that is so, so important because we need to find a cure. We need to have a life where breast cancer is no longer a thing,” she said.  “Was a great reminder to me about life and how being alive is amazing and even though I walked all five kilometres that year, and it took me a long time, it took me, I would say, just over two hours, I wasn’t thinking about how tired I was and I wasn’t thinking about all my treatments I had ahead of me and everything like that, it was, this is amazing, this if fun and it was a celebration of everything that I went through and what my family and what Kyle went through and just a great celebration of what it was like to be alive.”

Over 100,000 participants will run or walk on Sunday in communities across the country and so far the foundation has invested over $360 million in breast cancer research.

For more information on the CIBC Run for the Cure, click HERE.