The ninth edition of the Windsor/Essex County Multiple Myeloma March is being called very successful after participants raised more than $40,000.
The march last weekend attracted 157 participants to the Vollmer Culture and Recreation Complex in LaSalle.
The Multiple Myeloma March is the flagship fundraiser for Myeloma Canada, which supports research into the cancer of plasma cells.
The disease is incurable, but new treatments have extended the lives of many patients, including Guido Vetorello.
Vetorello was diagnosed with the disease in 2015 after he could not shake unusual fatigue. When treatments for anemia did not work, blood tests and a bone marrow biopsy confirmed he had multiple myeloma. At the time, doctors told him he had just three years to live, but because of weekly chemotherapy treatments, he is still alive.
Canadians are diagnosed with multiple myeloma every day, and it is the second-most common form of blood cancer, but doctors do not know what causes it.
A record of 28 communities across Canada took part in this year's fundraiser.