HARRISBURG, Pa. — Breast cancer survivors and supporters walked Harrisburg's Walnut Street Bridge Thursday night with bras in hand, hoping to bring awareness to the disease.
"When you're hand in hand with other women and you have people cheering you on on the sides, it is an unbelievable feeling," said breast cancer survivor Michelle Burger from Middletown.
It's an annual event held by the Feel Your Boobies Foundation, whose messaging helped Michelle get the push to see a doctor.
"I would see these little messages around town and it literally made me do it," she said. "Then I felt something the one day I went to the doctor's and it went right through the mammogram."
Michelle, like Sarah Brennan of Dillsburg, was diagnosed at 37 years old, which is under the recommended age for women to get a mammogram.
"The common misconception is that breast cancer is typically for older women," Brennan said. "That's not the case."
It’s the same story that got Leigh Hurst to start the Feel Your Boobies Foundation 20 years ago after she was diagnosed at age 33.
"I wasn't paying attention really to any of the breast cancer messages out there because they really felt like they were for the older population," Hurst said. "I decided to create an educational campaign using language that younger women can relate to, using methods that catch their attention a little bit better."
The Feel Your Boobies Foundation encourages younger women to “know their normal” while also raising both money and awareness.
"Feeling their boobies is a primary way for them to know that there's a change in their own breast," Hurst said. "Prior to that they're not being screened, so if a change occurs it may be something that's missed by the doctors.”
It’s a message all these women want to spread, to give people like Sarah and Michelle a better chance at survival.
"My life, hadn’t I seen this campaign, could have looked completely different. I have two children. I'm gonna be a mama for a long time.”
The organization uses the 'Bras Across the Bridge' event as one of its biggest fundraisers and is close to reaching its fundraising goal of $25,000.