Students, volunteers and former cancer patients took part in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life fundraiser last weekend. The Relay for Life event is a twenty-four hour fundraiser in which teams of ten to twelve take turns walking or running around a track. Most of these events take place on high school and college campuses, as well as public parks and athletic fields, which provide a safe environment and a sense of camaraderie among the participants.
At the University of New Hampshire, senior Doug Swain and his team, UNH Superfriends Against Cancer, took part in the event in memory of his late girlfriend, Jess Fubel. She passed away last February, in part due to complications from mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer that affects the fluid lining around the lungs. Typically, mesothelioma occurs in older patients exposed to asbestos and the disease’s symptoms lie dormant for several decades.
Fubel’s case was unusual as she contracted mesothelioma at such a young age. She also suffered from neuroblastoma, a form of brain cancer that usually occurs in infants. Her doctors did not mention any connection between the mesothelioma and the neuroblastoma, nor did they remark on if she had been exposed to asbestos either at the university or earlier in life. Scientists have established a positive link between asbestos exposure and the occurrence of malignant mesothelioma.
The 2010 Relay for Life marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the event. In 1985, Dr. Gordy Klatt, a surgeon from Washington State specializing in colorectal cancer removal, walked around a track at a nearby high school for twenty-four hours to raise money and awareness for the American Cancer Society. This year, thousands of participants in dozens of locations across the country are taking part in the event.
UNH students, staff and faculty have participated in the Relay for Life since 2003. Mr. Swain said that his team raised more than $3,000, which will go toward the American Cancer Society’s efforts to fund research for new treatments and educational efforts for patients and their families. He said that he wanted a “constructive” way to express his sadness and voiced his pride in his team’s fundraising production. He also mentioned that many of his teammates and other walkers in the relay had lost loved ones to various forms of cancer, which led to their participation.
Other fundraising methods at the event included bake sales and T-shirt stands. A group of female students organized an effort to let people donate at least eight inches of hair that would be woven into wigs for patients who have lost their hair during cancer treatments. Members of the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity donated their hair in honor of an advisor who lost a battle with cancer.
In addition to the New Hampshire Relay, participants in other parts of the country raised nearly $1 million during the event. Volunteers in Culver, Indiana, raised more than $100,000, while students at the University of Maryland brought in over $125,000. A Relay at the University of Nevada raised $30,000 and one team in New Orleans contributed $25,000.
Sources: The New Hampshire, The Nevada Sagebrush
