Dr. Forbush Thinks

Coming from a competitive sports background I have to admit that the concept of Relay for Life is a bit odd. “Let me get this straight. You get a bunch of people together and you spend 24 four hours taking turns walking around a track? What’s the point?” I asked my wife when she suggested that we walk in the Relay for Life a couple of years ago. “Does any one win? Do you keep track of the number of laps walked?” I pushed a bit harder.

“No, you walk around the track, and sponsors give you stuff,” she told me. “The relay tries to raise money for cancer research,” she also told me. I had to agree with her that raising money was certainly a good objective.

So, my wife, my kids and several groups that we belong to all showed up bright and early one Saturday morning and began to walk around the track. But, it was more than just the walking. There were speeches from people who survived cancer. There was an emotionally heart wrenching candle light hour just after sunset. Each candle represented a friend or family member of a person participating who had fought cancer. There were games during the day for the kids while they waited for their turn to walk around the track. There were times when almost everyone was walking. There were times when very few people were walking. The struggle to keep the relay going at 3:00 AM seemed to represent the struggle to keep the research going even when cancer is no longer on the front pages with new treatments.

The experience was terrific, and I would recommend it to anyone, especially if you have a friend or family member who is fighting cancer or you have lost a friend or family member to this disease. But, since the main point of the relay is to raise money, donating to the effort is an even better way to support the Relay for Life. Mulligan, a member of the Bring It On blog is participating in this event the weekend of March 25th. So, please check out her blog and contribute what you can.











Cross Posted @ Bring It On, tblog, Blogger and BlogSpirit



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