Largest simultaneous stretch

The 10th Playtex MoonWalk will take place on 19th May 2007 at Midnight in Hyde Park, London. The evening will start at 8 pm when 17,000 MoonWalk participants will arrive for a meal and an evening of entertainnment in a huge pink tent in the middle of Hyde Park, and then at approximately 11.30 pm every single participant will take part in the warm up to prepare for the challenge ahead before proceeding to the start line to either walk a half-marathon or a full marathon.

This will be an attempt to break the current record for the largest simultaneous stretch set by Cancer Research UK at the Race For Life One Big Day event that involved 9,169 participants in London, UK, on 4 June 2006.

Walk the Walk came into being 10 years ago when just 13 women power walked The New York Marathon in their bras to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research. What started out as a once only fundraising event has blossomed into a thriving charity, raising to date in excess of £27 million for breast cancer research and cancer care.

The charity was founded by Nina Barough who at that time had a styling and production business. Nina woke up one morning with what seemed a brilliant idea – to Power Walk the New York marathon in decorated bras to raise money for breast cancer. What makes this story so incredible is that Nina at that time had no experience whatsoever of fund raising, or taking part in a marathon nor did she know anyone who had been affected by breast cancer.

In November 1996 the dream became a reality when 13 women took to the streets of New York in decorated bras. Although the main idea was to have fun….it resulted in raising over £25,000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research. Word soon got around and people started to call Nina asking her if they could join her “next event”. Due to her work commitments it was doubtful if that would happen but then fate intervened. In January 1997, Nina not only discovered that she had breast cancer but that it was an aggressive tumour (which she had most probably had for about three years). As a result her world was thrown upside down, she had to give up her business and enter into a programme of treatment. As is often the case in these difficult times, those around her felt very helpless so it seemed that to Power Walk the London Marathon would really be a positive way to support her. The 1997 London Marathon was again a huge success for the Walkers raising in excess of another £25,000 and was closely followed by the first Walk the Walk auction of decorated and designed celebrity bras. Only days later, Nina was in hospital undergoing a mastectomy. This was followed by a course of radiotherapy, Tamoxifen and Zoladex injections.

It was clear by November 1998 that word was spreading and that many people wanted to Walk the Walk. Nina took the first steps to setting up the charity and finding the sponsors that would help to fund her and the rest, as they say, is history.

Since that day Walk the Walk’s flagship event The MoonWalk has become a major annual event. It is the only Power Walking marathon in the world that starts at midnight with thousands of dynamic women and men wearing bras!

19 May 2007