GENEVA – Geneva Police Officer Penny Boedigheimer and her friend, North Aurora resident Tracey Wright, walked 30 miles last month to raise money to find a cure for children’s cancer.

“We trained for months, over 100 miles and did this 30-mile hike in 13.5 hours on Tecumseh Trail in Yellowwood Forest in Indiana,” Boedigheimer said. “We had a whole team of 17 people. ... The team has raised $39,396.”

With nearly 13,500 children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer each year, one out of every five does not survive and three of five who are diagnosed suffer devastating, long-term side effects, Boedigheimer said in her fundraising statement.