Relay For Life - Family experiences have made Dutcher an avid supporter

Published 4:32 pm Thursday, April 30, 2009

By Brenda Sexton, The Courier-Herald

Roberta Dutcher's connections to the American Cancer Society run as deep as the cancer through her family.

Her first experience with the society was in 1976 when her mother was diagnosed with leukemia and used 250 units of blood. In Colorado at the time, the family had to replace each unit of blood her mother used.

"Two hundred and fifty units of blood is an awful lot of blood, and we were having a hard time collecting it," Dutcher recalled. The American Cancer Society came to the family's rescue and donated the blood.

Her mother died within nine months from cancer.

In 1993, Dutcher's older sister was diagnosed with colon cancer.

"It was pretty devastating to me," Dutcher said. Two years later, the same sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. But then came the toughest blow.

"Even more devastating," Dutcher said, "was in 1997, I was diagnosed with breast cancer."

And this year, one of Dutcher's younger sisters has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

"That meant three out of four of us were diagnosed," Dutcher said. Her youngest sister, so far, is cancer free.

It's not hard to see why Dutcher is a fanatic supporter and fund raiser for the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life program in Enumclaw. For the past three years she has helped to organize the Enumclaw Community Hospital teams.

But Dutcher's true motivation comes from the future.

According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women, and the second deadliest. An estimated 203,500 women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and more than 39,600 will die. Approximately 1.3 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year, more than 550,000 will die.

For Dutcher, the statistics are hard to swallow since the women in her family are part of the count.

That's what frightens Dutcher, who has two daughters and a slew of nieces.

"I'd hate to see my daughters go through it. I'd rather go through it again myself," she said.

"It's not because of the ones that have had breast or colon cancer," she says with a tear in her eye. "It's for my kids who have a high-risk factor. And it's not just for them, but for all the other people who have cancer."

As administrative manager for the laboratory and imaging services department, her "hospital" family has been affected, too. Many of her employees and fellow workers have stared cancer in the face. One lost a daughter to the disease this spring, another had a mother battling breast cancer and another's brother is fighting liver cancer.

Relay For Life is Dutcher's way to rail against cancer.

"What can I personally do to battle cancer?" Dutcher said. "I could give up, but I'm not going to do that. This is my way to fight back. Besides, Relay is fun."

Relay For Life gathers community teams together for 18 hours of activities to raise cancer awareness, honor cancer survivors, remember those who lost the battle with cancer and raise money for research, education, advocacy and service. Enumclaw's event will be from 6 p.m. to noon Aug. 15 and 16 at Thunder Mountain Middle School.

Dutcher, her sisters and maybe even her brother, who has beaten basal cell skin cancer, plan to walk in the opening survivors' lap.

Her older sister has had a slight setback. Doctors recently discovered cancer outside her lung, but Dutcher said, she's doing well on therapy and plans to be at the Enumclaw Relay.

They are survivors.

Brenda Sexton can be reached at bsexton@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald