Christy Turlington Burns To Run ING New York City Marathon to Increase Awareness and Support for Maternal & Child Health

NEW YORK, Sept. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Fashion icon and women's health activist, Christy Turlington Burns will participate in the ING New York City Marathon on Sunday, November 6 to raise money and awareness for her non-profit organization, Every Mother Counts.

Every Mother Counts (http://www.everymothercounts.org/)  is an advocacy and mobilization campaign founded by Turlington Burns in 2010 to increase public awareness of and support for improved maternal and child health. Now in its second year, Every Mother Counts seeks to engage new audiences to better understand the challenges and the solutions so that we can take action to improve the lives of families by improving the health of girls and women worldwide.

To put things in to perspective globally, for each of the 16,000 female runners that participated in last year's marathon, two times the number of women die due to childbirth related causes each month. Hundreds of thousands of women die during pregnancy and childbirth each year, and 90% of these deaths can be prevented if given the proper tools and resources.

"Simply put, we want to run so others don't have to," said Turlington Burns.  "So often, distance is the biggest barrier to a woman and her family getting the care they need.  We hope to not only increase awareness for the cause but to also make that vital connection for people. So many pregnant women live far from health services around the world and that distance does make a difference."

Turlington Burns tapped fellow maternal health advocates and friends to create a team of ten that will run the marathon. Heather Armstrong, Writer & Creator, Dooce (http://dooce.com/) , and Advisor of EMC's Technology and Media, Julie Smolyansky, CEO of Lifeway Foods (http://lifeway.net), Carlos Quirarte, co-owner The Smile, and Erin Thornton, Executive Director of Every Mother Counts to name a few.

The EMC team is set to meet a fundraising goal of $50,000, double the amount ING requires! To support EMC's Marathon runners, please visit the team fundraising page, http://www.crowdrise.com/everymothercountsrun/fundraiser/.

About The ING New York City Marathon

The premier event of New York Road Runners, the ING New York City Marathon is one of the world's great road races, drawing some 140,000 applicants. The race attracts many world-class professional athletes, not only for the $650,000 in prize money, but also for the chance to excel in the media capital of the world before two million cheering spectators and a worldwide broadcast reach of 330 million. As any one of the more than 875,000 past participants will attest, crossing the finish line in Central Park is one of the great thrills of a lifetime. For more information, visit www.ingnycmarathon.org.

SOURCE Every Mother Counts