The Northwest Indiana Dental Society is proud to host our 6th annual event, the 5k Run/2k Walk for Oral Cancer Awareness at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Crown Point, Indiana on September 21, 2024.

Approximately 54,000 people in the US will be newly diagnosed with oral cancer in 2022. While some think this is a rare cancer, mouth cancers will be newly diagnosed in about 145 new individuals each day in the US alone, and a person dies from oral cancer every hour of every day. When found at early stages of development, oral cancers can have an 80 to 90% survival rate. Late stage diagnosis is not occurring because most of these cancers are hard to discover, (though some like HPV origin disease have unique discovery issues), it is because of a lack of public awareness coupled with the lack of a national program for opportunistic screenings which would yield early discovery by medical and dental professionals.

It is one of the Northwest Indiana Dental Society's goals to increase public awareness of oral cancer symptoms and risk factors, to increase early detection.

It is because of the past support of the community of runners, walkers, dental members and sponsors, we have been able to donate $33,000 to the Oral Cancer Foundation to support their advocacy efforts. We want to continue to be part of the change to increase the early diagnosis of oral cancer.

Please join us as a runner, walker or sponsor to help us increase awareness!

09-21-2024, 09:00 am - 12:00 pm