I nearly witnessed my best friend’s mom die. I missed the dreadful event by one hour. Just one. I got a text message from her the day before telling me that her mom was not doing well and if I could either pray for her or come visit, hopefully it would make things better. I knew what I had to do…even though it was not easy. I went to go visit Katie and her mom as soon as I could. An hour passed. I went home.
It was Sunday, February 15, 4:26pm, when I received that heart wrenching phone call from Katie’s dad, telling me it was all over. “Katie’s mother just passed away honey. Her battle with cancer has ended.”
It took me a while for the words to sink in enough to realize that it was true. There was a huge lump forming in my throat and I was losing air quickly. Her dad asked if I would come back over to their house just to be there for Katie, because no one really knew what to do. I had my mom rush me over to her house as quickly as possible, only to discover that I couldn’t do anything for my friend. Nothing in the world would make the situation any better… so we sat together on her parent’s bed and listened to each other cry. We did not talk, because we couldn’t. There were no words for this. But even though I didn’t actually do anything, I felt fulfilled because I was there for her. I know she would do the same for me, and I knew Katie would be alright.
What Katie doesn’t know is that after all of this, her and my experience ended up changing me.
Cancer had always been a problem in Katie’s family. Since she was in middle school, her mother had been fighting the disease and due to many doctors’ efforts, her family had thought the issue would have gone away when she was told she was cancer free. Yet unfortunately, our sophomore year it had come back for good. I had my own experiences with cancer myself-almost everyone you speak to could share their story about how this horrible disease has affected their life. My grandma was diagnosed with lung cancer when she was only 59, due to many years of smoking and working as a waitress in a restaurant (they didn’t have no-smoking laws back then), and passed away not even two years after. My grandma had died before my experience with Katie’s mom. I always knew that older people died of cancer, because of smoking, or not taking care of their body properly, or sometimes because of unknown reasons. Yet to have a 17 year-old girl lose a young parent who hasn’t even hit the halfway mark of her life, I couldn’t even wrap the idea of it around my head.
If someone asked me why I decided to do Relay For Life my sophomore year, I would have responded somewhat like this: “Well, all my friends did it last year, everyone says it’s a lot of fun that lasts all night, and it’s for a good cause.” Although that would have been a sufficient answer to most people I could have spoken to, since then my reasoning for participating and the importance of the event to me has completely changed.
Relay For Life is an event held by the American Cancer Society, and it is a walk to raise money to find a cure for cancer. It is usually held on a Saturday afternoon, and goes until around noontime on Sunday. In Relay For Life of Mount Olive, over 100 teams work together to raise money all year, and just last year we raised over $100,000. All the teams come to the track on the football field at the high school, set up tents, and have at least one person from their team on the track walk all night to symbolize the fact that cancer never sleeps, therefore neither should we. Throughout the night there are games, movies, dance contests, and continued efforts to fundraise for the cure. At midnight there is a special luminary lap in which hundreds of bags line the track with glow sticks in them, each bag symbolizing someone who has won, lost, or is still fighting their battle with cancer. This is the most touching and heartfelt part of Relay, because it is the time when we can remember those who we have lost, or celebrate those who have survived their fight. During that time, people are invited to go up and speak about their experience with the disease and share their story of how cancer has affected their life.
I have been participating in Relay For Life for two years now, and this year decided to become more involved with the event. I joined the Student Committee at my school, and am now one of the student leaders for Relay For Life of Mount Olive. We usually have meetings twice a month to go over fundraising ideas, possible new teams forming, and anything else relating to Relay. February was a big month for us, because it was the annual assembly in which we give a presentation to our entire school to try and promote the joining of new members to the event. The assembly was broken up into gym classes, and consisted of a slideshow of pictures, information about the event, and personal stories shared by students on the committee about how Relay has changed their life, and how cancer has as well. My best friend Katie was one of the speakers this year, and I couldn’t help but notice how silent the audience would get every time she mentioned that her mom had died last year (it was the anniversary) from cancer. Even I choked up every time she told the story, and I had heard her tell it six times that day.
Volunteering has always been a big part of my life, because I have been very involved in my church youth group ever since I could remember. Yet if someone were to ask me what the most rewarding experience I’ve had with volunteering was, it would be Relay For Life. This event has changed me in no way I ever could have thought it would. I know that even after high school, I will continue to come back to my hometown to participate every year, for the rest of my life. I will not live with the fact that innocent people are dying from a disease that doesn’t have a cure. As the American Cancer Society says “Remember.Celebrate.Fight Back,” I will continue to fight back against this disease until a cure is found.
