GO!GO!GO!: Cancer survivors from the Beijing Anti-Cancer Club participate in the 12th Beijing Hope Run at Chaoyang Park on September 18 (CHEN RAN)

The rain on the morning of September 18 did not dampen participants' passion for the 12th Beijing Hope Run, an annual event to raise money for cancer research in China.

At 9 a.m., more than 3,000 participants had gathered at the Open Air Theatre Square in Chaoyang Park in eastern Beijing, where they were doing warm-up exercises at the starting line. Kyle Mullin, a Canadian working for the No. 2 Middle School of Tongzhou, was one of them.

"The principle of this event is surviving cancer, so the whole school is here to show our support," said Mullin.

Song Zhimin, 61, performed a traditional folk dance with her peers from the Beijing Anti-Cancer Club before the start. Living in Nanyuan, some 25 km from the city center, Song got up early and was excited about the event.

"Our participation, either by running or walking, is a signal to the public that cancer is not the end of the world," Song, a breast cancer survivor of 12 years, told Beijing Review. "I think it is important to enhance cancer awareness through the run."

This year's run covered a distance of approximately 8 km and was themed "The Journey of Hope Always With Love."

The inspiration for the Beijing Hope Run is the Terry Fox Run, the largest one-day cancer fundraiser in the world. The Terry Fox Run honors Terry Fox, a Canadian bone cancer patient who ran 5,373 km across Canada in 143 days in 1980 to raise funds for cancer research.

The Cancer Institute and Hospital under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CIH) has been its principal organizer, in cooperation with the Canadian Embassy in China.

Since the Beijing Hope Run was first held in September 1999, more than 200,000 people have taken part in the run. The event has raised more than 5 million yuan ($733,000) for ongoing cancer research in China, including cervical cancer research in the poor and remote areas of Shanxi Province, the Taihang Anti-Cancer Project which covers a population of over 600,000, and epidemiological research on malignant tumors in Tibet Autonomous Region.