Last Mother's Day, Amy Hickman stood in front of thousands of people at the Mother's Day Classic as she gave a minute's silence in memory of those who had died from breast cancer – the same condition she had been diagnosed with four years earlier.
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In September, the disease took her life.
This year, her friend, Barb Miels-Barrett, will be on the podium to conduct the minute's silence, before entering the charity run with her and Ms Hickman's families.
"[Amy] took the role very seriously and was so positive about it all . . . to do it this year in memory of Amy, it'll be really sad but I think it's important to do. It's important to acknowledge and remember her life," she said.
Ms Hickman, who was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer in 2010 after seeing a physio for hip pain, was said to have only referred to her condition as "living with cancer", never as dying from it, Ms Miels-Barrett said.
"She never really had a chance to do anything but know she was going to die with the disease, so she chose to look at it as living."
"Amy's aim was just to live as long as she could," she said. "All she wanted was just to have time, and she never had it . . . just to be with the kids, just to be here."
The Mother's Day Classic, run by the National Breast Cancer Foundation, donates all funds raised to research organisations and just over 10 per cent of that towards research for advanced breast cancer, which has no cure.
The foundation has a goal of "zero deaths from breast cancer by 2030".
Both Ms Miels-Barrett and Ms Hickman agreed they would like to see this result a lot sooner.
"Too many people are going to miss out," Ms Miels-Barrett said.
"Too many people are going to lose their mums, friends, sisters and aunties."
Amy's husband, Trevor Hickman, strongly supports the cause, thinking mostly about the future for his young children.
"I've got a seven-year-old daughter and I don't want her to live in the shadow of potentially getting breast cancer herself."
The Mother's Day Classic offers either a five-kilometre walk/run or a 10-kilometre run.
It will take place around Lake Burley Griffin and starts at 7am. Registration is available on the day or online until Saturday.
Also on Mother's Day, a festival will celebrate the launch of the recently completed Bunda Street Shareway.
Mother's Day on the Shareway kicks off at 11am. It offers fun for the whole family, including giant games, DIY chalk art, food, entertainment and a pampering zone for mums, and dads, too.
The shareway is the fourth stage of the ACT government's Civic Cycle Loop project. It has been designed as a "shared space" for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.
