Local News - April 2003

Record relay battles cancer

5,000 turn out

By JACOB RUDOLPH, Staff Writer

DENVER — Hope and fortitude abounded last weekend, as 5,000 people descended onto the East High track for East Lincoln Relay for Life.

Cancer survivors, their caretakers, neighbors, strangers, friends and family members –– a community –– gathered close for 14 hours, marching side-by-side in solidarity against cancer.

There were plenty of cheers and tears; hugs and high-fives. Purple and white balloons decorated the track, while a bastion of team tents housed gifts and games; food and fun.

A record 45 teams turned out for the American Cancer Society fundraiser, each team comprised of members who had secured sponsors for their around-the-clock trek around the track.

Everyone was together for one cause. There was no mistaking the purpose of the event — the uplifting spirit, present in the songs and the stories of the survivors, hung happily overhead.

“The spirit is here and it’s a great day to be alive,” said honorary event chair and six-year cancer survivor Doug Mayes to kick off the event.

Take a flying leap

This wasn’t Bud Richmond’s first Relay for Life, although it was his first east Lincoln relay.

The 69-year-old Sherrills Ford resident has been to several Relays for Life, in Charlotte and elsewhere; however, none compared to the magnitude of this event, he said.

He came alone Friday night. He came to enjoy the festivities. He, like so many others, came to be with friends, most of whom he had never met.

“Everyone here, the survivors, we’re all kindred spirits,” Richmond said.

Diagnosed with throat cancer in 1979, Richmond said the disease is nothing compared to other things he has been through: he escaped North Korean captors after 90 days as a POW during the Korean War and in the 1980s survived an Eastern Airlines crash.

He is lucky, he said, really lucky.

“I’ve had several good wake-up calls,” Richmond said. “I wonder sometimes, why I’m still here. Luck, I guess.”

Since being diagnosed with cancer, Richmond has survived four surgeries and will undergo a fifth next week.

By looking at Richmond, you’d never notice his wavering health. Before the relay’s Friday night opening ceremony, he was sitting alone in the survivors’ tent, a broad smile plastered on his square face. His hair is silver-white; he wears a mustache and glasses. His voice is raspy from multiple throat surgeries —  “a Daffy Duck” voice, as he describes it.

By wearing wide smiles, Richmond gets by, he said. Joking and laughing are just what the doctor ordered.

“Humor is my medicine,” Richmond said. “You can sit back and feel so sorry for yourself, but people get sick and tired of hearing your complaints.”

A cancer survivors’ attitude is everything, Richmond said openly. That is one reason he enjoys Relay for Life –– it is an event where positive attitudes are rewarded and people come together, the deadly disease and never-do-wells be damned.

“It is all attitude,” he said with a gruff laugh. “You have to wake up in the morning, feeling crummy, and tell the world to take a flying leap.”

Survivors’ lap

Just as dusk was falling Friday evening, a mass of 225 people, all wearing yellow shirts and white sashes, gathered at the starting line for the first lap of Relay for Life — the Survivors’ Lap.

As they rounded the oval, each walker’s name was called over the loudspeaker — an impressive list of success stories and a tribute to personal fortitude.

Scanning the survivors — some young, some old; some short, some tall; some slim, some stout — it is evident that cancer is not choosy. Yet all wear smiles and carry festive balloons.

There are success stories swirling amongst the crowd. Cancer is their common bond.

As much as the survivors provide inspiration for the 5,000 applauding their lap, those standing in ovation provide inspiration for the once-sufferers of the disease.

Mary Reynolds, 69, of Westport has walked in two previous east Lincoln relays. She was first diagnosed with cancer in 1989.

She gathered with family and friends following the Survivors’ Lap, choking back tears as she thanked the relay crowd for what this event has given her.

“It is wonderful; it is truly great that they have this for us,” Reynolds said. “A lot of very special friends have been made here. It’s just great.”

Friendship and support are the highlights of the weekend-long event, especially for the survivors. Relay is recognition for their accomplishments, a sign of hope and, for some, vindication against cancer.

For 59-year-old Carol White, the relay is all of that and more. Although she has been cancer-free since June 2000, she cannot technically be called a survivor for two more years. She is a survivor nonetheless.

“It gives me so much joy and pride to be on the victorious side of cancer,” White said. “I love to hear someone’s name and hear how long they’ve been a survivor.

“It is so important to be here –– to help others to know they have someone with them to give and to care for them.”

Hope

At 9 p.m. Friday, the East High track lights were lowered and hundreds of luminaries flickered alone in the darkness.

Hope, a forward-looking word of inspiration, was spelled by candlelight, in block letters across the visitor’s bleachers.

As the survivors took a second, symbolic lap around the luminary-lit oval, a gospel choir lifted its voice high above the stands –– a touching tribute to both the survivors and a community gathered together for a single cause.

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Staff Writer Jacob Rudolph can be reached at 704-735-3031 or jacobrudolph@ltnews.com

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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