A lap for life

Cancer survivors walk hand in hand during the survivor lap that began Relay for Life Stanwood/Camano Island Friday evening. About 200 survivors were honored during the first lap around the SHS track Friday. Luminaria, decorated white paper sacks, line the SHS track and honor those who have survived, are fighting, and have died of cancer. As 200 cancer survivors walked the Stanwood High School (SHS) track, other community members applauded from the sidelines.

Young and old and in-between, male and female, seemed united in their purple shirts and in their shared fight against cancer.

As they finished their second lap with families and caregivers, the SHS drum line and the rest of the crowd fell in behind, joining in the Relay for Life of Stanwood/Camano Island.

A total of 1,200 people participated on 96 teams for the relay, said Bill Gum, public relations chairman for the local event.

As of the start of the relay, teams had fundraised $186,000. However, donations were still coming in throughout the relay, Gum said. He estimates the local relay will reach $200,000, but the final amount won't be known until later this week.

PHOTOS BY KRISTI PIHL STANWOOD/CAMANO NEWS Relay for Life benefits the American Cancer Society, the largest source of nongovernmental and nonprofit cancer research funding in the U.S.

The organizers had set the goal of 150 survivors honored, 100 relay teams and $250,000 in donations for the seventh year of the local relay.

Sue Thees, relay co-chair and five-time cancer survivor, said the reason she survived five times was early detection.

Know the signs of cancer, she encouraged attendees. Use sunscreen, eat right and don't smoke, she said.

Nancy Key, of Camano Island, was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer . the worst kind . 10 years, 10 months and five days before the relay.

At that time, 45 percent of women diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer lived five years, Key said. Only 5 percent lived 10.

Cancer is something that turned Key's lifestyle upside down. She describes the experience as kissing death on the lips, and credits it with inspiring her to become an activist.

"I do all kinds of things I never thought possible," she said.

In 2002, that meant joining a Department of Defense review panel on breast cancer and giving input on research proposals from her position as a survivor. The department distributes the second highest amount of research funding in the U.S.

Through that, she discovered that scientists have identified the genes in DNA, and are working on understanding exactly what happens when cells mutate. That research will result in drugs that specifically target cancer cells, she said.

No more losing hair, eyebrows, eyelashes and fingernails from chemotherapy, Key

said.

"It's coming within our lifetimes," she said.