For more steps than she could count, Cindi Reynolds thought about her sister.
Tom and Kelly Moore remembered the good times and bad with a father and cousin.
Caleb Wilson simply thinks about his mother.
The subjects may vary, but the reasons hundreds of people rattled off lap after lap at the Ackerman-Lee track Friday and Saturday were very specified - cancer and how it has affected the lives of loved ones and their own.
Canby’s annual Relay for Life ran Friday to late Saturday morning and everyone had a reason to be there - good or bad.
“My sister and I are separated by only a couple years and we grew up ve
ry close, so watching her battle cancer and the finally die from it - I keep running it over in mind while I walk,” said Reynolds, who’s sister Caroline died four years ago of a brain tumor. “For me, Relay for Life is a kind of healing time. I love raising money for cancer research, but I find the time walking alone on the track very comforting. I kind of zone out and am alone with my thoughts - and think of my sister and those tough times.”
She isn’t the only one. Relay for Life is a combination fundraiser/celebration/reflection event, pulling a diverse collection of people - young and old - together to form a band of brothers and sisters working toward one goal - cancer’s eradication.
“We’ve lost two relatives to cancer,” said Kelly Moore as she walked hand-in-hand with her husband. “You watch it happen once and you can’t imagine it - you go through it with your family a second time and it just blows you away. I love being here and being part of this positive energy.”
“I hurt for our mutual losses, but I’m also encouraged that people continue to work so hard to cure cancer,” added her husband Tom. “It’s a ghastly, terrible disease and it affects so many more people than just the person who has it.”
Wilson agreed. He watched him 45-year-old mother die in a matter of months after being diagnosed. His first Relay for Life won’t be his last.
“I’m here because my mom didn’t get a chance to enjoy any grandchildren or so many other things,” he said. “She was so young and cancer just ate her up. I’m only an hour into this thing and I’ve already met people with similar experiences - that helps a lot. I’m not close to my dad and my sister lives on the East Coast, so I’m kind of our here on a limb alone. I didn’t realize just how much I still depended on her.”
Moments after the opening “survivor’s walk,” teams sent their first walkers onto the track, but far more people joined than signed up for the first leg. People talked, met for the first time and shared stories of why they were there.
“Relay for Life is a good place to find some emotional healing,” said Reynolds. “Its value goes far beyond the money raised, I can tell you that.”