While sporting the word “survivor” on their purple shirts, several hundred people rounded the track at Lane Community College this summer to show their support for those who are battling or have survived a fight with cancer.
The wave of purple was lead by a group of children, as people of all ages and types took part in the celebration. There were smiles and laughter they pushed on together.
People affected by cancer in different ways came together July 28 to participate in the 2006 Eugene/Springfield Relay for Life at the Lane Community College track. Cancer survivors and their supporters came out to raise money and awareness for cancer research through the American Cancer SocietyThe Relay for Life lasted 24 hours, as 175 teams took off at noon Friday and continued through the night and into the following
day. Many camped out around the track as each team was supposed to have one runner on the track at all times. Community Relationship Manager Tinker Flom estimated that more than 3,000 people attended the event.
In its 15th year, the event has come a long way from its humble beginnings. In 1992, its inaugural year, the Relay involved six teams and raised $8,000. In 2005, the event raised more than $564,000.
The teams work to raise most of the money. Many business also contribute either through straight donations or by organizing and sponsoring teams.
Relay for Life Co-Chair Cathryn Stephens said the amount of attention and enthusiasm the relay has received has increased in recent years. This year, so many bands volunteered to play that it was a challenge to fit them in.
“It’s kind of a cool problem to have,” Stephens said.
She first became involved with the event through KVAL-TV, which runs a team, and was later recruited to help with the organization of the entire event.
Jay Gano started working with the Relay for Life after his mother died of cancer, and he credits the relay with helping to save his life when he faced the disease.
Gano, 54, has been
working with the relay
for 12 years. When he turned 50 he made sure to have a Prostate-Specific Antigen or PSA test, which is used to screen for prostate cancer, even though he didn’t have any symptoms.
The test came back positive. As he took part in the relay before his own cancer, Gano said he often found himself wondering how he would deal with the disease if he was ever diagnosed. He said that the attitude he saw from survivors in the relay helped him to find the right approach to his disease: both pragmatic and positive. He sees in the relay the best hope for a cure, and joy in the better, longer lives that cancer patients are able to live thanks to medical breakthroughs. He said he is certain that with the development of new medical techniques, supported by events like the Relay for Life, there will be a cure for cancer within his lifetime. Though he has faced it himself – and known people who have succumbed – this hope makes the event all the more meaningful.
“There’s sad memories, but it’s also a celebration,” Gano said.
The Relay focused on survivors, and celebration of life, but the memory of those who succumbed to cancer was also very present. Kenny and Judi Gates created Zach’s Team in honor of their son, who died of cancer March 31, 1994 at the age of 10. 2006 is the eighth year that Zach’s Team participated in the Relay. The Gates first encountered the event when it was still held at Hayward Field. They decided to buy a luminaria, a small decorated white paper bag filled with some sand and a candle, dedicated to a person who is either battling or has passed away from cancer. The bags line the track, and after dark as part of the luminaria ceremony the candles are lit.
“It hit us hard,” Kenny Gates said of seeing his son’s bag at the ceremony. “We just bawled like babies.”
They were approached by Zach’s former grade school principal, himself a cancer survivor, who along with his wife participated in the relay. The Gates were inspired to start a team of their own, so they recruited their friends and family, co-workers and others who had known Zach to join. Zach loved baseball, and so their team uniforms resemble baseball jerseys, with an intentional Boston Red Sox influence.
Kenny Gates’ mother is also currently battling cancer, and this year she was unable to come up from Arizona and walk with the team. He kept her informed though, by holding up a cell phone so she could hear the opening ceremonies. When the time came for the survivor’s celebration, Gates said she got up from her chair and made a circuit around all the rooms in her house
with her walker and called him immediately after.
Gates said the Relay for Life is a community event, where people come out once a year to reestablish bonds and friendships that flow naturally from their common experience. People can laugh and cry knowing that others have been through the same thing at some point.