Tonight is the Delano Relay For Life event. All of my sisters and I, along with 4 nieces, my brother-in-law and two friends of the family will be there doing our part to raise awareness and donations for the American Cancer Society! This is my 3rd year of participating and hopefully the year I can FULLY participate (meaning walk more frequently)! Last year was my first year of walking post-op and I did OK, but not as much as I feel I can this year.
As you know, I lost my dear sister Sandy to breast cancer earlier this year after she fought a courageous battle for 3 years (one of the photos above is of her and her grandkids). I also lost my friend Terry to pancreatic cancer after he fought for over a year, beating the odds of his 6 month sentence(the other photo above is the old "Target" group w/Terry - he's in the baseball cap). My friend Connie lost her sister Grace almost one year ago to breast cancer. My other sister Trish also faced breast cancer head on this year. She had a lumpectomy and radiation and seems to be doing well now! My friend Nona is battling 3 different cancers right now (breast, lung and liver). They removed the liver and breast cancer tumors, and she's still recovering from that surgery. My pastor John has been battling lung cancer, which lead to brain tumors for about 3 years now. My friend Sandy's brother is also battling cancer. The list goes on and on. I wish there was a magic way to make it stop, but we all know that's not happening! So the alternative is to fight with everything we've got, support those who are in the battlefront and do what we can to raise money towards research and a cure some day!
So wish us luck and wish us good weather (last year it stormed on us!!). Also wish all those battling cancer a victory! And say a prayer for their families and care givers - they need it as well!
