Thirty years after Betty Curtis lost her aunt, Rita, to breast cancer, the Canberra woman had her own brush with the disease.
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Picked up during a mammogram she was not even due to have, the disease was at such an early stage she did not require radiotherapy or chemotherapy.
Ms Curtis said her story not only showed why regular mammograms were so important, but also how far breast cancer research had come in the past three decades.
"None of my family and friends are allowed to miss a mammogram. If you can catch it early, your chances of survival are 100 per cent," she said.
"If they had then what they had now, Aunty Rita wouldn't have passed away from breast cancer."
Ms Curtis was one of about 3700 people who took part in Canberra's Mother's Day Classic on Sunday.
The annual fun run and walk raises money and awareness for breast cancer research.
When Rita died in 1983, aged 42, little was known about breast cancer, Ms Curtis said.
"They found the lump while doing another procedure, and she never recovered," Ms Curtis said.
"When I got it, I got so much support that she never had. So many people said to me through my journey breast cancer is one of the better ones you can get because of how far we've come. Imagine what it'll be like in another 30 years."
However, Mother's Day Classic Canberra co-chair Sue Field said there had been a small decline in numbers this year because of the perception the breast cancer fight was "covered".
She said while the survival rate for people diagnosed with breast cancer was now at 90 per cent, those with an advanced form of the disease had a survival rate of just 22 per cent.
"I think there is a lot of complacency," Ms Field said.
"Breast cancer affects everyone, no matter what age you are. Everyone should go and get checked."
Her co-chair Natalie Rayner said while other cancers were important, breast cancer was still a high killer.
"This fight is certainly not won. I think a lot of people feel breast cancer has been supported long enough because of the amount of airtime it gets, because there's a number of different foundations and organisations, they think we're fighting for the same cause so perhaps we should concentrate our efforts elsewhere," Ms Rayner said.
"I believe all cancers need support but breast cancer is still a major killer of our family members and loved ones. Unfortunately it's one of those diseases where everyone knows someone who's been touched in some way."
Book a mammogram by calling BreastScreen ACT on 13 20 50 .
