To the Editor:
Nearly everyone has been touched by cancer in one way or another. When you ask cancer survivors or their caregivers what helped them get through grueling treatment or even the loss of a loved one, most can answer in one word: hope.
While in treatment, cancer patients may hope for strength during treatment or for a lifesaving cure.
When faced with the loss of a loved one, caregivers, family members and friends search for hope that others won’t face the same cancer or that they can find emotional healing as they grieve.
More than three million people in the United States from 5,000 communities have found hope by participating in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life. Often, newly diagnosed patients or caregivers of someone recently lost to cancer are invited to a Relay For Life event not knowing what to expect. Many say that from the moment they set foot on a Relay track, they discover a community of people who know what they’ve been through. It’s that sympathy and support that brings the hope needed to move toward healing.
I was one of those people. After my mother died at 83 in 2003 from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, I struggled to cope with overwhelming grief. No one else could understand my loss, and I had trouble finding ways to enjoy life without her.
At the Relay For Life of El Dorado, I saw other families gathered around luminaria bags that illuminated the track. In them, I saw people who had found a way to find hope again. They found that hope by uniting with others to fight back against a disease that had brought so much pain.
Fighting back against cancer by participating in Relay For Life has helped me to carry on in my mother’s name. Doing something tangible makes me feel like I can be the one to inspire hope for someone else along their own journey with cancer.
After all, all it really takes is one person. It was one man in Tacoma, Wash., back in 1985 that had seen enough suffering and wanted to make a statement about the need for additional fundraising for cancer research and services.
That man, Dr. Gordy Klatt, ran and walked 83 miles that night, but he also started a worldwide movement to end cancer known as the American Cancer Society Relay For Life.
Sincerely,
Suzie Van Tries,
RFL Advocacy/
Mission Chair
Relay For Life
of El Dorado
