Friday, Sep. 26, 2008

Philanthropic feet

Pounding pavement in 12-hour Relay For Life

By SARAH JUNEK

Last Friday night, a community of cancer survivors, their families, and other supporters gathered in Keller Town Center to raise money and raise awareness.

Teams of fundraisers walked for 12 straight hours to keep the American Cancer Society’s relay going throughout the night at the second-annual Relay For Life and were able to raise over $81,000.

With more than 400 gathered around a water fountain in front of Town Hall, cancer survivor Mary Anne Mueller told the crowd about advice she had gotten from a friend: "There will come a time when you don’t think about cancer."

Mueller announced her reply, "I just can’t let that happen."

At this year’s relay, state Sen. Jane Nelson walked with the survivors and was given the True Grit award by the American Cancer Society followed by a national Distinguished Advocate Award in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for her work relating to the new Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas and a bill authorizing $300 million over the next 10 years to be spent on cancer research.

"I’m convinced we are very close to finding cures for some of these cancers," Nelson said.

Relay for Life is the nonprofit’s top fundraiser for the year, bringing in 70 percent of annual funds, said Erika Schrimpshire, community manager in the nonprofit’s Dallas-Fort Worth office. The American Cancer Society chapter disperses the money from this relay back into the communities for cancer research, education, advocacy and patient services. For this race, Keller, Southlake, Roanoke, Trophy Club, Grapevine and Colleyville, cancer patients will benefit.

Clocks lined one of the tables around the fountain for a silent auction with the slogan "It’s time to cure cancer." Tents with sleeping bags and lawn chairs lined the north side of Town Hall where teams of participants waited their turn to walk. Candles lit up the path at 9 p.m. after a remembrance ceremony to honor over 400 who either have cancer or someone who did.

After midnight, Keller resident Janice Sargent and a neighbor came out to walk for their friend, Debbie Nichols, 47, a mother of three who was diagnosed with breast cancer. Nichols was too weak to walk at the first relay last year, but said she just finished her final round of chemotherapy and was celebrating.

In a pink hooded sweatshirt, pink scarf and headband and diamond stud earrings, she raced around the fountain with her 10-year-old son, Christian, in an egg drop race before pizza arrived at 2 a.m.

"He was real quiet when I first told" her son about her diagnosis, Nichols said. "But later he came up to me and said, 'But you’re going to be alright?’"

As Mueller walked the track, she found it difficult to express feelings about getting cancer.

"It’s just," she said as her voice trailed into silence as she kept walking and looking forward. "That’s a tough question," she said and then punched her fist into the air directly in front of her and twisted her hand to symbolize the words she couldn’t find.

"You can’t do it by yourself. I don’t care how much you say you can."

At first Mueller said she was afraid of the treatments. Now that they are over, that doesn’t matter so much.

"I can’t get back the time I lost with my family," Mueller said, adding that now, she just wants to have another 50 years with her husband.

Dr. Heidi Jordon, who started Southlake Oncology over three years ago, stands next to her team of doctors and staff, one of whom, Mary Dowler, her practice manager and organizer of the event.

Patients who go to her facility get something different, former patient Howard Horn said.

"The chemo room is a party," Horn said, "and that’s more important than you think."

Jordon appreciates the spiritual needs of those facing cancer.

"If you don’t have it you’ll find it with a cancer diagnosis," she said after explaining her offers to pray with patients rarely gets turned down. "Cancer is a disease of the loss of control," and people are afraid of that.

After participating in a "dance with the doctor" fundraiser, Jordon walks into the morning hours past the lit candles, some of them are held by her patients.

"We’ve had so many successes," she said. "Healing comes in many forms, and sometimes it’s not always physical."