Cancer
society's annual fun-raiser touches many
June 8, 2003
R.
PATRICK CORBETT
Observer-Dispatch
Dozens of men, women and children with cancer survivor
badges pinned to their royal purple T-shirts proudly led
off Sauquoit's first Relay for Life Saturday.
It
was one of five area events scheduled across the Mohawk
Valley this weekend to raise money for American Cancer
Society research programs.
Hundreds
of people touched by cancer -- physically or psychologically
-- held hands or applauded each other Saturday at the
start of the relay.
Master
of ceremonies Mark Montgomery told the walkers it was
a day to "hug your friends and thank God for your
lives."
Cancer
survivors led off with a lap for life and then were
followed by the rest of the throng, who were to continue
walking in relay teams until this morning to raise money
for cancer research.
Cancer
survivor Janet Cackett of Sauquoit said organizers "thought
there might be 20 teams" in the inaugural event.
"They got almost 90," she said with a big
grin.
Volunteer
event chairman David Jones said the final tally was
85 teams.
Local
American Cancer Society Community Director Robert Elinskas
said he was impressed by the size of the first-time
effort in Sauquoit. He started his day there before
heading off to salute walkers in Utica, Rome, Ilion
and Camden, which also hosted its first relay.
Elinskas
said he wouldn't know the full amount raised by the
events until Sunday. The national organization is hoping
that this year's 3,800 relays will raise more than $1
billion.
"Five
years ago at Proctor (High School in Utica) I attended
my first Relay for Life," Cackett told the crowd
that lined the Sauquoit High School track infield. "Two
months later I became a cancer survivor," she said.
"Relay
for Life means community, means life, means hope (and
a) vision for a future without cancer," she said.
Loreen
Kuhn and her husband Glenn of Kings Road in Sauquoit
share that vision.
Loreen
Kuhn said she thought she had a cold sore 4» years
ago, but she was busy planning her son's wedding and
pushed the thing to the back of her mind.
When
the sore did not go away she could ignore it no longer,
she said, and her doctor diagnosed it as a squamous
cell carcinoma.
By
the end of 1999 the cancer had taken her nose and upper
lip, but Kuhn said, "I beat it."
She
said early diagnosis is the most important weapon in
beating the disease.
And
last Tuesday Dr. Vito Quatela in Rochester performed
the latest in a long series of surgeries that has given
her back her face.
It
was surgery "number 29," her husband, Glenn,
said.
And
hopefully the last, Loreen Kuhn said.
But
this year's Relay for Life certainly won't be her last,
she added.
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