Except of being somewhat large, the yoga class of dozens of men and women sitting on yoga mats preparing to greet the sun, as they inhaled and exhaled, looked ordinary enough, except that if you looked at some of the messages affixed to the backs of many participants, you would know this was a very special event.

Majorie Goodman's message to honour her mother who died from lung cancer 16 years ago read: `I am doing yoga in memory of Deborah Goodman, my mom,' in support of the cause.

Goodman was among a hundred others who got together at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation in Pikesville Sunday for the second annual Free to Breathe Yogathon. Most of them participated in the event in memory of a cherished one, and who all as a group performed `Surya Namaskar' i. e. sun salutation, one after the other.

While, each taxing salutation takes around a minute to perform, the goal of the Yogathon was to carry out 108 of them through the afternoon.

Co-organizer Elissa Sachs-Kohen, a rabbi who lost her mother in 2008 barely 10 weeks after being diagnosed with lung cancer informed: `In yogic philosophy, 108 is completion, it's a full number.'

With registration costing $30 to $35 per person, the main purpose of the event was to raise money and awareness for lung cancer, which according to the National Lung Cancer Partnership is the top cancer killer of men and women in Maryland. Money is needed for providing better screening tools and more research for finding a cure and for beating cancer.

National Cancer Institute estimates an estimated 159,390 people died from lung cancer in 2009, a higher number than people killed by breast, prostate, colon and pancreatic cancer combined. More women die from lung than from breast and colon cancer combined.

A major national study confirms CT scans are able to detect lung cancer much earlier than standard chest X-rays, however, the setback is that higher doses of radiation, like the ones delivered by CT scans cause cancer over time. However, when it comes to older people with a long history of smoking, they are worth the risk.