Bonney Lake and Sumner walk together in Relay For Life event
Published 11:31 am Thursday, December 11, 2008
By Dennis Box
The Courier-Herald
The Sumner/Bonney Lake Relay For Life committee gathered for its kick-off event Thursday at the Calvary Community Church in Sumner.
About 40 people attended and listened to speakers and cancer survivors. Committee chairman Sherm Voiles, who lost a son to liver cancer in 2002, moderated the event.
The American Cancer Society's Relay For Life fund-raising event for cancer research and education has been a success across the nation. Teams of about 10 to 15 people raise money and walk, relay style, throughout the night for the cause.
This is the first year Bonney Lake will participate as a community, although residents and businesses from the area participated in previous years.
Cheryle Noble is on the recruiting committee for the Bonney Lake area and hopes to expand the number of teams in the area.
“Bonney Lake is a new area and we want to bring in as many teams as we possible,” Noble said. “The benefit is to all those touched by cancer.”
Noble's daughter, Chelsea, is a cancer survivor and she spoke at the event Thursday.
Chelsea was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a fast-growing soft tissue cancer, when she was 5 years old. She is now 16.
Noble said her daughter was treated with an experimental protocol, receiving “two years of chemotherapy in less than one year. We lived in the hospital in 1995, but she is here and doing great.”
During the treatment Chelsea lost her hair, eyelashes and eyebrows and was not able to run outdoors to play.
Noble said her daughter has fought through cancer and neurofibromatosis, a nervous system disorder that causes tumors to form on the nerves. Chelsea had to have her spine rebuilt because of the disorder.
“She is amazing,” Noble said. “She's my hero.”
The committee hopes to raise $165,000 this year. Nationally the event raised about $360 million last year for the American Cancer Society.
“I would like to see the Relay For Life expand to have enough support to start the Bonney Lake Relay,” Noble said. “Until than we love partnering with Sumner. Cancer doesn't care where you live.”
Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald.
