Julie Dunlap, 33 and Molly Roth, 34, have a lot in common. Both are Lawrence moms raising three young daughters and both have mothers who fought breast cancer.

Roth’s mother, Phyllis Lawless, faced breast cancer 12 years ago. Today she is cancer-free. Dunlap’s mother, Mary Thies, celebrated her one-year anniversary of being cancer-free last weekend.

“She did surgery and then chemo and radiation,” Dunlap said. “She had every side effect that could come from it and told me if she ever had to, she would do it again. I want to make sure she doesn’t ever have to do that again.”

Dunlap and Roth are walking in the Breast Cancer 3-Day starting in Swope Park on June 17, traveling through Johnson County, and ending 60 miles later at the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Mo., on June 19.

Over the course of three days, the expected 2,100 participants will walk 60 miles. They will have three meals a day, snacks, liquids, mobile showers, and tents to sleep in, as well as 24-hour medical support.

Dunlap and Roth have trained diligently for the walk. With only 10 weeks to go, the women have kicked their regimens into high gear. Dunlap works out six days a week. She does two days of short walks, two days of long walks, two days of cross-training and one day of rest. She said sometimes she throws in Pilates and yoga on her days off.

“I’m getting more nervous — the longest I’ve done is 13 miles and I was a little bit sore, but it’s getting better,” Dunlap said. “I remember doing an eight-mile walk and a 10-mile walk and those were exhausting. Now I hit 10 miles and don’t feel the effects at all. So at some point I hope this won’t be cumbersome.”

Each woman on the nine-person team had to raise at least $2,100 to participate, with the majority of the proceeds going to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Team member and Lawrence resident Cindy Jankovich joined the group because of the fund raising as well as walking for her mother-in-law, a seven-year survivor.

“Raising the money for research — the fund-raising part — is what’s important to me,” Jankovich said.

Jankovich said she’d raised a little more than $4,000 for the walk.

“It’s touching to see how many people quickly donate money — when I got the $2,000, I almost starting bawling.”

Money aside, the women are excited to walk and spend time with people with similar stories. Choking back tears, Roth said she’s worried about all the women in her life.

“I have three daughters and three sisters. Who knows what could happen?” she said. “Every 13 minutes a woman dies from this disease and every three minutes a woman is diagnosed.”