Pictured: Last year's Burn for Breast Cancer raised $5,000. The team is hoping to exceed that with their goal of $5,500 for this year's event. Photo courtesy of Mantra.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and the owners of Mantra Fitness are actively engaged in fundraising efforts through their Burn For Breast Cancer community classes.

Sarasota native, Kathy Covington, President and Founder of Mantra Fitness and Co-owner, Jeannie Abreu are both BRCA positive, meaning they carry a rare genetic mutation linked to a higher risk of breast cancer. “Being BRCA positive and having a strong family history, I have had the chance to be what they call a previvor versus a survivor. When I found out I was carrying the gene, I elected to do the preventive surgeries that came with that and I feel like I was very lucky to have the chance. Because of that, I have very strong feelings toward promoting this event and building the awareness that we need as women,” shares Covington. “Burn for Breast Cancer is a big inspiration for myself and as well as my partner Jeannie in Tampa who has a very similar personal story to mine.”

Burn for Breast Cancer is a donation-based class taking place at all three Florida Mantra studios: the Sarasota studio in the Landings shopping center, the Lakewood Ranch studio near UTC and the South Tampa studio. The event will begin at 10:30 am on October 21st and is open to anybody that wants to participate. The organizers are asking for a $50 per person suggested donation and they are hoping that every participant will support their efforts to raise money for this important cause. The class will be a standard 50 minute high-intensity, low-impact Pilates workout. Covington suggests that someone who has never been to Mantra try the free intro classes in the Lakewood Ranch or Sarasota studio beforehand so that when they come to the fundraising class, they're actually getting a great workout and they feel like they're really participating in the cause. Registration is on a first-come-first-served basis and is limited to how many people the studio can accommodate.

“The Mantra workout is a very community-based workout in addition to the Pilates method that we practice,” shares Covington. “Supporting women and women's causes is very important to us."

To learn more about Mantra and the Burn for Breast Cancer event, reach out to Kathy directly via phone: 941-201-1087 or email: Kathy@mantrafitness.com. 

Pictured: Last year's Burn for Breast Cancer raised $5,000. The team is hoping to exceed that with their goal of $5,500 for this year's event. Photo courtesy of Mantra.

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