Money, time or both, Relay for Life needs you

Everyone has been touched by cancer. It can be the soft tap on the should when you learn a someone you know or love has been diagnosed. Or it can be a chokehold on your own body, a predator that takes over your body and mind and forever changes your life.
Florida is second only to California in the estimated number of new cancers in 2008. A projected 1.437 million Floridians will die this year of cancer, and that is excluding skin cancers and carcinoma in situ (noninvasive cancer).
More than 1,500 people are expected to die of cancer in the U.S. every day.
Cancer is the most feared diagnosis a family can receive.
It is also one of the most curable. As of 2003, 66 percent of those diagnosed with cancer survived, and that number continues to go up.
Every year, the American Cancer Society holds a Relay for Life. Members of the community come together in a celebration of those who are surviving cancer and to memorialize those who did not.
The purpose of Relay for Life is bring awareness and education and focus attention on the need for continued financial support of research and outreach.
It is a culmination of year-long fundraisers utilizing each member's talent and fortitude into a single event. For those who participate in Relay for Life, there are tears, joy, hope, inspiration and sadness. For some there is also revelation, gratitude and a test of physical endurance. But for all, there is also a sense of accomplishment and many more moments of fun and camaraderie than any other feeling.
One in three of us will develop cancer.
One in three. Pretty lousy odds.
Will it be you? Your spouse? Your child?
Cancer is a disease that does not distinguish rich from poor, smart from not so smart. It stalks all living things and is the stuff nightmares are made of. Therefore, we must be diligent in our efforts to eradicate it and to fight off the attacks when they come.
Help the American Cancer Society champion this cause by supporting a Relay for Life event in your community. Attend the entire event or drop in and enjoy some of the festivities. It's all good.
In Walton County, Relay for Life is at South Walton High School, on April 11, beginning at 6 p.m.
In Destin, it is on April 25, at Destin Middle School, also beginning at 6 p.m.
If you are healthy, go and give thanks and help lend a hand to those who need your support.
If you are a cancer patient, go and find others who are fighting the same fight.
If you are a cancer survivor, go and give thanks.