Watch out, breast cancer.

Cape Coral is one of many cities this month making strides to get rid of you, once and for all.

Those words were spoken not with people’s mouths, but with their bodies when nearly 2,000 people took a three-mile walk to raise money for breast cancer research in downtown Cape Coral Saturday morning.

The walk was part of the 2008 “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer,” a national fund-raising event for the American Cancer Society’s cancer-fighting research.

The walk, in previous years at Jaycee Park, took place on a section of 47th Terrace and included parts of Club Square and Vincennes Parkway.

“The event got too large for Jaycee Park,” said Kathy Lawrence, who is this year’s chairperson for the walk along with her sister, Peggy Mocharski. “This is a fabulous new location. I think the turnout is absolutely fantastic, way, way above our expectations. I think this is the largest crowd we’ve ever had.

“It has worked out beautifully,” she added.

Lawrence and her sister have walked during the event for the past four years, but this year is the first the two have headed things up.

“They’re all walking to find a cure to this deadly disease,” Lawrence said. “We walk for those who’ve been touched by breast cancer and fight the fight. We walk so one day we can finally can say, ‘Breast cancer, what’s breast cancer?'”

A sea of pink and white, the colors representing October as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, took strides down the south Cape Coral roads and smiled doing it. Survivors, family members and supportive residents took part in the walk, many displaying the distinctive shape of the breast cancer awareness pink looped ribbon on their clothing.

Over the past four years, Cape Coral’s walk has raised about $400,000, according to Sherri Nowlin, area executive director for the American Cancer Society.

This year’s walk is expected to raise about $70,000, Nowlin said.

Nationally, the walk has raised about $3 million this year. It is held at 320 sites throughout the United States each October.

Fort Myers, Naples and Sarasota also held walks Saturday.

To learn more about National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, visit: http://nbcam.org.