some of our relay stars

relay report

Friends for Life (several not pictured)

When I signed up with my buddies to walk in this year’s Relay for Life, I didn’t know I had cancer. I went to my doctor late in May and bugged her about a suspicious spot on my back for the last time. With only a minimal amount of exasperation, she said, “Well, if you’re that worried about it, go have it biopsied.’ So I did. And it was the ‘C’ word. Not the bad kind. It was the garden-variety kind that people with my kind of skin get from being out in the sun too much before sunscreen was invented. A wart compared to what so many others are dealing with even now.

My friend, Pam, talked me into getting a survivor shirt and walking the survivor lap with her at the Relay this weekend. Putting the purple shirt on elicited much more sympathy than I deserved but I wanted to be with Pam and the lap meant a lot to her. Unfortunately, she wasn’t up for it when the time came so I walked with some other precious friends instead (Bonnie and Cindy are mother and daughter).

By the time she finally made it to the Relay, Pam was as beautiful and cheerful as ever. She inspires me because C hasn’t been her only challenge and she’s this chipper all the time.

Special thanks to Steve for getting up with me at 3:40 a.m. and walking both my shifts with me then going with me to buy a little tiller so I could attack the weeds in our garden before needing to be somewhere else himself.