"When Victoria’s Christopher Mavrikos lost his mother to breast cancer in 1997, he set a goal of raising $100,000 so that one day there would be a cure.
The 31-year-old restaurant manager achieved that Sunday during the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure at the University of Victoria, bringing his total over the last 13 years to $110,000.
He was also recognized as the top individual fundraiser in Canada, securing $29,500 in the months leading up to Sunday’s event.
“I wanted to represent all the women fighting this disease and all the women who will be fighting it until there’s a cure,” he said in an interview after the run.
Mavrikos began hosting the Think Pink breast cancer fundraiser in 2004 — which includes a dinner, live and silent auctions and a raffle — and the event kept getting bigger, attracting local celebrities and bringing in more money.
“That event alone probably raised close to $17,000 to $20,000 [this year],” he said.
He also raised money by shaving his head last week. “I’m sporting a bald head right now. It’s going to be a cold winter,” he joked.
His first Run for the Cure was in 1997, just weeks after his mother, Lynn Veronica Mavrikos, passed away at 38 after a five-year battle with breast cancer.
“I ran along Dallas Road as an 18-year-old wondering, ‘What’s next?’ ” he recalled.
Mavrikos now works at his family’s Italian restaurant, Romeo’s Place, on Hillside Avenue.
Sporting a white T-shirt naming his sponsors, a pink wrist band and a visor, Mavrikos was among the approximately 4,200 people who participated in this year’s run, sponsored by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
He said it’s always an emotional roller coaster.
“I’m definitely a man on a mission but when I’m running I know there’s someone with me,” he said, tearing up.
Breast cancer survivors and supporters made their way across the one- or five-kilometre routes, raising a total of $563,000.
When Mavrikos accepted his award, he had everyone join hands and “put their hands up in a show of victory.”
Nine runs took place across B.C., with 22,000 people raising $3.6 million.
Canada-wide, the 19th annual event raised a whopping $33 million, well above the $26.5 million raised last year. The money supports prevention and early-detection initiatives, research and health-care workforce issues.
The foundation has set a goal to have a world without breast cancer by 2020.
Mavrikos isn’t quite sure what’s next, now that he’s passed his lofty goal, but he remains committed “to a future without breast cancer.”
The Run for the Cure is the hallmark fundraiser for breast cancer in Canada.
October is breast cancer awareness month and donations can be made until the end of the month. For more information about the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, visit www.cbcf.org."
kderosa@timescolonist.com
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