“We raise money for cancer research, for patient programs and services, and for education and advocacy efforts,” said American Cancer Association representative Amy Sundberg.
More than 1 million people in the U.S. are diagnosed with cancer every year.
The common sentiment is everybody has been directly impacted by the disease.
“Almost everyone has been affected by cancer, and the programs and services that this event supports it touches everyone in every community,” said Sundberg.
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“I lost my husband is 2007 to kidney cancer and we started a family team in 2008 so our family has been relaying and now we have friends relaying with us,” said Relay for Life Anoka County volunteer Janet St. Louis.
For others like Chase Robeck, the fight is personal. “I was 15 months old and my mom kept bringing me to the doctor and they kept telling her everything was okay, that I had some stomach flu or just different things. They kept sending me home until she found blood in my diaper and brought me to the hospital and she would not leave until they told her what was wrong with me. They did an ultrasound and eight doctors walked into the room because they couldn’t believe what they saw in the ultrasound. My tumor was out of my prostate and it wrapped around the neck of my bladder,” said cancer survivor Chase Robeck.
The effects continued to linger as he continued to battle. “At age seven I was still in pull-ups because I couldn’t hold in my urine, my bladder was just to damaged from all the radiation they had to do,” said Robeck. The surgeries and pain did not stop at an early age. They cut and sewed me six different times. Doctors came out and said you need to call whoever you need to call, a priest a pastor, whoever you need, you need to call them out to be here because he’s not going to pull through. I pulled through,” said Robeck. Then things took a turn for the worse earlier this year. “The pain was to much and I felt like my body was going to explode. I just couldn’t handle it, I was screaming everyday. I couldn’t move, my parents had to carry me from one room to the other,” said Robeck.
That’s when his faith pulled him through. “I did try to take my life. I heard God then at that point and he said I still got things for you to do,” said Robeck. Now he joins the relay each year to try to inspire those currently with cancer and bring hope to a future without it. “The relay for life doesn’t just stand for one cancer, it’s for all cancers and we as a community will not give up until we find a cure for all cancers not just one but all” said Robeck.
The belief is that all the negative cancer statistics can be changed. At the Anoka County Relay for Life 30 teams raised more than $46,000.
“I guess I do it now so my daughter and grandkids never have to hear the words you have cancer again, and they don’t have to lose another parent or grandparent to this,” said St. Louis.
“See a world without cancer, I want to save the next generation, I want to save my kids and I want to save their kids. I want to live to see the day where we longer hear the word cancer,” said Robeck.
