Tonight will be our county’s annual Relay for Life. I want to pause for a moment and consider why we relay.
Here are my reasons:
- Larry Nixon–my father, who is a prostate cancer survivor.
- Elwood Nixon–my uncle, who passed away after a battle with colon cancer.
- Roberta Wolfe Collins–my aunt, who survived colon cancer for several years, but died recently from complications following a stroke.
- Lettie Bennie Wolfe–my grandmother, who died from skin cancer.
- Alden “Tom” Fulkerson–my father-in-law, who died earlier this year from complications due to a brain tumor. (You can read my tribute to him by clicking HERE.)
- Avanell Fulkerson–my mother-in-law, who is doing well with her battle against chronic lymphocytic leukemeia
- Betty Newman–my friend and fellow singer, who is fighting an intensive battle against liver cancer.
- Lisa Arey–our high school drama teacher and my friend, who lives trapped in a high-level coma due to an attack on her brain by West Nile Virus, which struck her while her immune system was weakened following chemotherapy for breast cancer. She has been pronounced cancer-free and is in a rehabilitation unit at Baylor University.
- Bernice Bates–my friend who, praise the LORD, was recently pronounced in total remission after an intensive battle with Multiple Myeloma.
- Cindi Burleson, Marie Hill, Lou Ann Carter, Emily Oates, and I’m sure I’ve left many off this list of my friends who have battled breast cancer and are shining their lights by mentoring others who are fighting the disease.
Why do YOU relay?
We relay because so many people who we have come in contact in our lives whether it is our christian family, educators, co-workers or friends have been stricken by this horrible disease. We want them to know we love them and hope that there is a cure found soon for cancer.
I am a surviver of both cervical and uterine cancer.
In many instances today, cancer is not the death sentence it once was. This is directly related to the research events such as this have funded, and/or caused to be funded through public awareness.
Thank goodness my diagnosis didn’t occur just a few decades earlier. Had that been the case, my cancer story may not be quite as happy.
Many cancers are still the killers we imagine in our darkest fears, and researchers are still trying to find better treatments for them.
We have come very far, but there is still much more to overcome.