Survivors, Families Walk in Annual Relay for Life

Some walked to fight. Others walked to celebrate. Others walked to remember those who died.

Hundreds of people attended the fifth annual Relay for Life at Wayne Valley High School Saturday night. The 24-hour fundraising event - which raises thousands of dollars a year - was sponsored by the American Cancer Society (ACS) and organized by Wayne students from both high schools.

Survivor Leigh Barrie told a crowd that she was diagnosed with brain cancer when she was 10-years-old. 

“I could remember sitting in the operating room and my mother saying to me, ‘I’ll see you soon’,” Barrie, a Wayne resident, said, adding that her cancer was discovered after she fell a few times.

“I knew what was going on. I was old enough to understand how serious it was,” Barrie said. “I grew up a lot because of what I went through, but I try not to let my cancer define me. I’ve learned to celebrate the fact that I’m a survivor.”

Survivors began the event by walking around the track once. They held banners and flags that said: “remember,” “fight back,” and “celebrate.” Caregivers and family members soon joined them, walking around the track in shifts through the night and Sunday morning. Others stayed up all night in tents.

“Cancer doesn’t sleep, so we don’t either,” said Beverly Provido-Sahu, director of special events for the American Cancer Society.

Carrie Fohlinger, a five-year breast cancer survivor, said hope has kept her alive. 

“I just had a feeling of what it was, but when I finally did hear the words, ‘You have cancer’ time stood still,” Fohlinger said. “I never felt sorry for myself. I never asked ‘Why me’. I have a daughter and I wouldn’t allow any doubt that I had about getting better. I wouldn’t allow it to surface.”

The hope of a cure, the hope of surviving, and the hope of living in a time where cancer doesn’t exist, Fohlinger said, is what cancer victims must cling to.

“If you give up then where’s the hope,” Fohlinger said. “There’s always the hope that it will be okay. If you don’t have that, then what’s the point of going on?”

Wayne resident Steve Zuckerman had 61 lymph nodes removed from his neck when he was diagnosed with neck cancer in 2005. He felt a lump on his neck the size of peach pit one day while shaving and went to the doctor.

“In the beginning, I though I was going to die,” Zuckerman said. 

Zuckerman went through six weeks of chemotherapy and surgery. He lost most of his taste buds and salivary glands.

“Don’t give up,” Zuckerman said. “Giving up, not believing you’re going to get better, it’s all in your mind. You fight until you can’t fight anymore. Then you keep fighting.”