DANIELLE Post says it would be no surprise to her if one day she faces her own battle with breast cancer.

The WIN News presenter is the ambassador for Canberra’s Mother’s Day Classic fun run and walk, an event that raises funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. For Danielle, breast cancer runs in her family, with both her grandmothers and four great-aunts sufferers of the disease.

“I am petrified that I am going to get it,” Danielle says. “I haven’t resigned myself to the fact that I am, but I won’t be surprised if one day I do get it.”

Her maternal grandmother, died of the disease when her mother was only 13 years old.

“It was in 1970, and she was 43 years old,” Danielle says. “They detected it so late that there was very little they could do.

“My mum has very little memory of the disease because it happened so quickly.”

However, her paternal grandmother battled the disease twice and beat it both times; the first time was in 1982 when she was 62 and living in Holland.

“My dad had to fly back to Holland to help my grandmother,” she says. Then she realised being so far away from her children who were in Australia wasn’t a good idea, so she emigrated.

“Three years ago at 89 years of age, she got breast cancer again.

“So, in the first instance she had a single mastectomy and in the second, she had caught it in the remaining breast.

“She’s fine three years on and she’s going strong.

“It’s always a topic of conversation in our household.

“I’m a pretty responsible person, so I am not going to ignore it.”

At last year’s Canberra’s Mother’s Day Classic fun run 5300 participants, including Danielle, took part.

This year, as ambassador, Danielle will run the 5km circuit in between her MC duties.

And although the disease strikes a chord in her family, the key reason she’s throwing her support behind the event is to create awareness.

“Breast cancer, really does touch so many people’s lives, to use a cliche phrase,” she says.

“You probably know someone who’s had breast cancer, if you don’t you would know someone who would know someone who’s had breast cancer.

“It’s just going to get worse over time.

“It could be me in 10 years that people would be walking for. You never know.

“For anything, it doesn’t have to be money that we raise, money obviously helps with the improvements in treatments but the awareness is the key.

“You can talk about it in your house to your 12-year-old daughter, and when she’s 26 she knows that there is a chance and that she’s alert about it.” Already, registrations in Canberra are up by 20 per cent with organisers expecting 6000 people to turn out.

The event is run in every capital city and more than 30 regional centres. Last year, nationally the event raised $3 million for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. This year they hope to raise $4.2 million.

“In general, what’s 5kms when these women wake up every day with a fight on their hands,” Danielle says.

“A lot of them have children, a lot of them partners and they fight every day.”

Mother’s Day Classic fun run, in aid of the National Breast Cancer Foundation, starting at Rond Terrace, Commonwealth Park, Sunday, May 13 from 7.30am. Register at mothersdayclassic.com.au/event/act/canberra