Everyone knows someone who has battled cancer, and each one of us has been touched by cancer in some way. It is a truism that deserved to be spoken last Saturday, Sept. 12 as locals gathered together for the area’s Relay for Life.
In this nationwide Canadian Cancer Society fundraiser, teams collect pledges and walk through the night to raise funds for cancer research and advocacy programs.
Saturday marked the third Relay for Life for Flin Flon and area as 197 participants on 16 teams gathered on the Creighton baseball field to walk together from 6 pm to 6 am. They raised nearly $90,000 and counting.
Volunteers transformed the Creighton baseball field into a 250-metre walking track alongside a stage and tents of various shapes and sizes where teams in matching t-shirts, and their supporters, gathered in the warm September sunshine.
As motivational music blared through the speakers, the relay officially began.
Local cancer survivors were invited to walk the first lap of the relay in recognition of the journey they have travelled.
As some 50 survivors assembled, Shelley Etienne, survivor committee chair, asked those who had been diagnosed for a year or less to walk to the front of the group, then turn around. As they looked back at their fellow survivors, Etienne urged the new cancer patients to remember that the disease can be overcome.
In the second lap, survivors were joined by the friends and family who formed their support system during treatment. Many walked arm in arm, some laughing, some holding back tears.
The teams filled the track on the third lap, and the survivors became yellow dots in the sea of relay teams.
During the first few hours of the relay, participants and attendees were able to purchase luminaries: candles in white paper bags encircling the track. Each luminary bore a message to a loved one, including cancer survivors and those lost to the disease.
After darkness fell, the luminaries were lit in a moving remembrance ceremony that included a slideshow highlighting community members who had battled cancer.
As the relay went on through the wee hours of the morning, the number of walkers on the track dwindled; Relay for Life rules mandate that one member of each team must be on the track at one time.
The relay wrapped at 6 am and participants rolled into bed, having raised about $87,000. Margot Gray, chair of the Flin Flon-Creighton Relay for Life Committee, noted that donations were still coming in as of Monday evening.
“I am so pleased with everything, and so thankful for the help from individuals and from businesses, from food to entertainment,” Gray said.
While the fundraising impact was impressive, this event was about more than raising money.
It was about showing solidarity with those coping with a frightening cancer diagnosis.
It was about honouring lost loved ones, and giving tribute to their memories.
More than anything, it was about a community coming together and taking action for better health, and better outcomes, for the cancer survivors we all know and love.
