A proud moment: Relay for Life showed this county united to fight cancer

Cancer just doesn’t touch one family or person.

When a diagnosis is made, many will cry, worry and hope. Friends and family will celebrate those who survive and mourn those who are lost.

And all will hope that, someday, there will be a cure so that no family has to go through the same pain.

This weekend in Wayne County, thousands of people joined hands and hearts to do their part to make that dream come true.

The numbers will be big from this weekend’s efforts, but they will pale in comparison to the support and love shown by the 128 teams and community members who braved the rain to do their part Friday.

And, after all, that is really what it is all about anyway — helping each other.

The Wayne County Relay for Life has become a model for how to engage a community in pursuit of a worthwhile goal — in this case to eradicate cancer by funding research to find a cure.

And it is successful because it is personal. The families and friends who are at the Relay are there for someone — either a survivor or someone fighting the disease or a loved one who has lost his or her fight. Their stories are poignant and show that this event is as much about love and hope as it is about raising money.

Those who spent their evening at the Relay should be proud. Their efforts have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars toward putting an end to this dread disease.

But they should also be proud, too, of putting a face to a disease that affects millions each year. They have preserved the memories of hundreds of Wayne County residents who have been lost and have stood beside hundreds more who are still fighting.

They are not letting any of us forget the toll this disease takes or the people behind the statistics.

And that is what really matters in this fight.

Published in Editorials on May 21, 2007 10:53 AM