We are proud to report that at this year's event a total of 33 teams
came together, bringing over 370 participants who raised over $50, 000
through Relay For Life®. And a wondrous group of around 100 survivors
provided inspiration to all. Again, this was truly an amazing year!

 

That means that we our entire goal was met! Yea! ACS!

 

 

May 03, 2008 I walked in Relay For Life hosted by the American Cancer Society. This was my first experience in anything like this, and I had a great time! My school sponsored a team and I think when all was said and done we reached our goal. But the entire even had strived to raise $50,000.00 and fell just $800.00 short of its goal last night.

 

This event started at 5:00 P.M yesterday and lasted until 6:00 A.M. this morning. The point was one person on the track at all times from each team. Sadly, not a lot of people from my school volunteered there time for this event, so there was pretty much just 3 of us, me, Bill, and Mrs. Fox. Hildie was there till eight last night, and Theran was there pretty late, but not walking, he was doing the $5.00 massage's, oh my gosh! They looked so good!

 

I have some photos that I will put up later on, to show what a fantastic time this event was, and I hope that all of you in your community will participate in the next ACS fundraising event!

 

Why did I volunteer to do this 12 hour walk? Because it's for a good cause! Ok, that is true, but there is another reason. Last year, in just my county more then six thousand people died from various types of cancers. But as bad as it might sound to say, I wasn't thinking of them when I was approached about this event. I was thinking of my Aunt Sarah, who was diagnosed last year with several types of cancers in several different areas of the body. She has been through surgeries, biopsy's, testing of all kinds. She has lung cancer (and no she doesn't smoke) She has polyps on her colon that have been removed and are now back, she had cancer on her adrenal gland, (which has now been surgically removed) she has so many things wrong that I can't even begin to list them all here. I pretend (as do many others) that everything is fine, and will be fine, but the truth is, I am scared to death for her and typically try not to think about it.

 

I thought about my grampa, who died from cancer. Who's life might have been saved, if the doctors had not ignored his symptoms. I don't know, its hard to explain. You know that thing that health care professionals do where, if you don't have the money or insurance to cover it, they ignore it? Well, he was ignored. Once diagnosed, he went rather quickly. But there is a little secret that I hold to, and I am going to share it with you. THe last week of his life was spent in the hospital. I was affraid to go see him, I was young then, and hoped that if I didn't go, it wouldn't be true. He wouldn't die if I didn't make it real, and if I didn't see him, it wouldn't be real. So I didn't go.

I had just gotten Renea's one year old Birthday pictures back from Wal-Mart Portrait Studios, my mom kept telling me how bad he was and I needed to go see him. I just couldn't  bring myself to do it though. I wanted him to see her pictures, and to give him one. A few days later I managed to muster up the nerve to go see him. It was late in the evening, and I took her photos with me to show him. He had IV's running through him, and he was on a morphine drip. Just looking at him laying so sickly in that bed made me cry uncontrolably, I knocked things over, and made a huge mess. I was so scared and emotional. I just didn't want to face reality. He woke up for a minute while I was there. He knew who I was, and called me "Kiddo" as he usually did, but he called all of the grandkids by that name. I showed him the photo of Renea and he smiled, he made a joke or two, then went back to sleep. This was all around ten o'clock in the eve when I made it there, and in his room to see him. When I left, I was still so sad and upset, but I felt better, and releaved in a sense, that I did go see him. I remember being in the hall and crying with my mom and my Aunt Sue... I don't recall a whole lot more then this, because I have a tendancy to block bad memories. I went home that night, and about three a.m. someone called, it was my mom.... and like that, he was gone.

 

She gave me back the picture of Renea when I saw her the next day, and of-coarse it went in his pocket at the funeral.

 

So what's the secret you ask, well the secret is, that he waited for me. He held on and didn't give up on me. That's what I like to tell myself anyways. He waited for me to come, and when I did, he let go. Everone else had been to see him, everyone but me.

 

I also thought of the time I met my father, that summer my mom was diognosed with cervical canver and had to have a hysterectomy, and Amanda, a girl I used to work with who was a few years younger then me and had been battling a type of cervical cancer.

 

I didn't spend much time looking at the hundreds of bags lining track with candles and pictures of people who have passed, they made me think of my grampa and brought tears to my eyes immediatly. I mostly tried to not look at those.

 

I plan to attend this event next year, but our team was not very organized, so I plan to be much more involved then I was with this. I know what a big deal it is, but I didn't realize what an emotional trip it would be for me.