Why do people run for cancer?

To raise awareness as well as money for research purposes in order to find a cure.

it raises money and awareness for the cause… if you say “i doing a run to raise awareness for breast cancer” more people will donate to you than just randomly deciding to donate to the ACS or something

OKay. You organize, say, a marathon. You say you make it a charity run. You will find a sponsor. Or several. Those sponsors will promise to donate money to some cancer research sciece project for every mile anyone runs on your marathon.

So the effect will be:

• People will run that marathon in order to do something good for cancer patients. Not just for sports. Every mile they run will make a difference. Every friend or acquaintance they convince to also join the event will make a difference. So your runners will recruit other runners and be happy to have done something good after the run.
• Your marathon event will get a honorable mention in local newspapers.
• Your sponsors name will also be mentioned in local newspapers.
• Cancer will be mentioned in the newspapers.
• Some cancer research science project will be funded.