Do I need the verb 'to' in this sentence.

Question

Our customers are helping Susan G. Komen for the Cure to save lives, ensure quality of care for all and energize science to find the cure. Learn more.

It seems to me that the progressive verb 'are helping' covers off the 'to'. Wouldn't it be ambiguous to add the 'to'? As in, in order to.. ?

Grateful for any help here.

Avangi · Accepted Answer

AnonymousOur customers are helping Susan G. Komen for the Cure to save lives, ensure quality of care for all and energize science to find the cure. Learn more.

The use of the infinitive is correct, but there are several other problems with your sentence.

Is "the Cure" the name of an organization?
I hear things like, "Our customers are helping Susan for The March Of Dimes." (For = on behalf of)

"the cure to save lives" is not a natural collocation. It might work as a slogan.

" . . . . helping Susan in her effort to save lives" would make sense. It's the "Cure" that disrupts the sentence.

"Susan is working for a cure." makes sense. But you'd need to say earlier what the cure is "for."

Our customers are helping Susan [to raise money] to find the cure.
Both of these infinitives are okay.

If you just eliminated "for the Cure" from your sentence, it would be okay, because you mention it again at the end.

As an aside, "to" is often a preposition and is often "the infinitive marker," but it's never a verb.

I tried to help. You can call "to help" a verb here. It's a non-finite verbal, having no tense.
The "particle" "to" is sometimes omitted from the infinitive, and would not be considered a verb by itself.
If I'm not mistaken, BillJ considers it a preposition even when it's used as part of the infinitive.

Do I need the verb 'to' in this sentence.

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