"Back in the '60's the treatments weren't what they are now. She wrote in lipstick on her mirror that she couldn't got on with the pain any more," said Angel-Lahr, a research coordinator for Cal State Northridge's Psychology Department. "I remember how horrible it was for her and her family, how hard they tried to save her. What a tragic thing it was for her to end her life that way."

Next month Angel-Lahr and two other CSUN employees are donning their sneakers and walking approximately 60 miles to Santa Barbara to raise money for access to care and finding a cure for breast cancer. They will be joining about 3,000 other walkers as part of the Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk from Santa Barbara to Malibu Oct. 19-21. Similar walks are taking place across the country.

Since the walk's inception, more than 31,000 walkers have raised more than $65 million for the breast cancer cause.

CSUN's team consists of Angel-Lahr, Corky Yonce, who works in CSUN's information technology resources department, and Cat Carrigan, who works in the university's communication services department.

The CSUN team also has organized a health and breast cancer awareness fair and a benefit concert by jazz great Pancho Sanchez on Thursday, Oct. 4.

The health fair will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the University Student Union and is part of the annual Ending Violence Against Women Conference. The fair will include free blood pressure checks, massages, henna tattoos and psychic readings. Participants will also get a chance to make appointments for free mammograms.

The fair will be followed at 8 p.m. by a benefit concert in CSUN's Performing Arts Center featuring the Pancho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band and the Jennifer York Jazz Quartet. Tickets are $18-$50 and available at the Associated Students Ticket Office at (818) 677-2488.

Yonce and Carrigan have been walking 15 to 18 miles on Saturdays and Sundays for the past few months to prepare for the walk.

"It takes a lot of energy and stamina, but it's being put to good use, raising funds for a charitable foundation," Yonce said.

Carrigan's mother is a breast cancer survivor and she lost her father-in-law to cancer.

"To me this is a way for me to heal the pain, and do something positive for cancer research and for women as a whole," Carrigan said.

The walkers pointed out that this year more than 180,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and more than 40,000 are expected to die from the disease. Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women in the U.S., and the leading cause of death among women between the age of 40 and 55.

Angel-Lahr said she is walking in part because of Irma Giordano, a woman she befriended in 1996 after she asked Angel-Lahr to henna her head. Angel-Lahr, who does henna tattoos at the San Fernando Valley Indoor Swap Meet on weekends, agreed.

"She said she had breast cancer and had lost her hair to chemotherapy. I did her head a couple of times," Angel-Lahr said. Angel-Lahr eventually lost track of Giordano, but ran into Giordano's daughter a few years later at a beauty parlor and learned that her friend had died.

"(Giordano's) one of the reasons I'm walking," Angel-Lahr said. "This woman had more strength than anything. She really wanted to live. This was her second bout with breast cancer. She did lose her battle, but she never lost her spirit."

To support the CSUN team, call Yonce at (818) 677-6230 or Angel-Lahr at 677-2815.