The slogan words are powerful:
Celebrate! Remember! Fightback!
We want to take a few minutes to explain what those words mean to us.
Celebrate and Cancer don't seem to go together....
And yet, we will walk the Survivors and Carers lap with a real reason to Celebrate. Dexter.
He is here, and he is able to join us on that first, heartbreaking lap, of Relay.
We Relay to celebrate. We celebrate that Dexter was able to beat his hepatoblastoma. We celebrate that we were able to save his hearing, using alternate chemotherapy treatments. We celebrate that he has been declared cancer clear and we celebrate that our family is still intact.
Without research and improvements in treatment, many people would not be here, to celebrate.
We celebrate for Pokky.
This is the hardest part of Relay.
The cold, hard truth is that cancer kills.
We Relay to honour our loved ones who were taken by cancer.
We Relay in honour of the children we met while Dexter was being treated for hepatoblastoma, and the kids we've known since then... we Relay in honour of them, because their young lives were taken from them. We Relay to stand beside our new friends, who Relay for loved ones we will never meet.
We Relay for June and Nev, and many, many others who lost their battle with cancer. We Relay for Ash.
We Relay for Team Roberts, and their beautiful Mum/Aunt.
And, we Relay to remember that a healthy lifestyle is a great start in fighting back against cancer.
Cancer stole nine months of our lives, and will forever be in the back of our minds, a constant nagging worry.
Cancer kept us from enjoying our pregnancy with Dexter's sister, and caused this little girl to sleep in hospital rooms during her first month of life.
Cancer made us shave our son's hair - so we never enjoyed his first hair cut.
And cancer made us poison our son, and watching those toxic drugs flowing in to his tiny body was cruel and heartbreaking and simply awful.
Cancer broke our hearts... stole our smiles and put strain on our marriage.
Cancer wanted our son, and so, we Relay.
In the last three years, through Dexter, we have raised around $29,500 for cancer research and Camp Quality.
We Relay because it feels as though, by Relaying and by raising money, we are honouring Dexter.
And, while the money side of Relay is very important...
Relay means more to us than the money raised.
Relay is a way for us to show Dexter we are with him.
Last year, we had a team member on the track the whole 24 hours.
And, even though those dark, cold, lonely hours are the hardest, they are what Relay means to us.
During the day, there's fun and games and colour and music. At times, Dexter had fun and music and love and laughter while he battled cancer.
But then, there were dark times... times when all he could do was lie on us and groan. Days when all we did was clean vomit. Days when all we did was cry.
Days when minutes felt like hours and we never thought we would ever leave the hospital. Those were the dark, cold, lonely hours and they were the hardest. So, we Relay... and we keep someone on the track the whole night, because Dexter never gave up, even during his darkest hours, so we will never give up on him. This year, we will have someone on the track, the whole 24 hours, because this is what Relay means to us.
We Relay for Dexter.
Some people Relay to raise money for research, so we can dare to dream of a world without cancer. We have been told there is a high chance Dexter will develop a secondary cancer later in life, as a result of the chemotherapy treatment he received to kill his hepatoblastoma cells. We Relay to fight back.
We Relay to raise money, to improve the research into cancers and treatments, because this research may help all of us in the future.
Some facts from the NSW Cancer Council:
- An estimated 128,000 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in Australia this year, with that number set to rise to 150,000 by 2020.
- 1 in 2 Australian men and 1 in 3 Australian women will be diagnosed with cancer by the age of 85.
- Cancer is a leading cause of death in Australia. More than 43,200 people died from cancer in 2011. Cancer accounted for about 3 in 10 deaths in Australia.
- Around 19,000 more people die each year from cancer than 30 years ago, this is due mainly to population growth and aging.
- More than 60% of people diagnosed with cancer in Australia will survive more than five years after diagnosis.
- The survival rate for many common cancers has increased by 30 per cent in the past two decades.
- The most common cancers in Australia (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) are prostate, colorectal (bowel), breast, melanoma and lung cancer. These five cancers account for over 60% of all cancers diagnosed in Australia
- Over 434,000 people are treated for one or more non-melanoma skin cancers each year, with 543 people dying in 2011.
- Cancer costs more than $3.8 billion in direct health system costs (7.2%).
2013 Relay for Life - ~ $7,240 raised!
If you have sponsored us, thank you!
If you can sponsor us, click here. (2015 link)
Donate $100 and we will promote your business,
here and on facebook and twitter.
email: [email protected]
We noticed many of last year's supporters created
their own Relay teams this year, or joined teams. We love that. xx
See the cancer?
End of Chemo - One year anniversary
Cancer clear - One year!
Raising Kids' Cancer awareness
Cheeky hair - take that, chemo!
Last Year's Relay
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