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Saturday Morning Walk Along Schuylkill River to Benefit Multiple Myeloma Research

By Lynne Adkins

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A run and walk tomorrow morning near the Philadelphia Museum of Art will benefit the battle against the second most common type of blood cancer.

Marilyn Alexander, who has been living with multiple myeloma for nearly two decades, is co-chair of the "Miles for Myeloma" 5K walk and run.

"Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells, which are the cells that help to fight infections in the body," she explains.  "It can be treated with chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants, and there are a lot of new drugs out there, but there's no cure."

And she says there are more than 22,000 new cases of multiple myeloma each year.  When Alexander herself was diagnosed, she was give just a few years to live -- and that was 19 years ago.

Registration for the Saturday morning even begins at 7:30am, just west of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Since the first run in 2009, Miles for Myeloma has raised a half-million dollars.

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