When my dad was diagnosed with Lung Cancer in the summer of 2004 I was devastated. I was scared. I was angry. After months of feeling this way I decided that I needed to find a way to channel my negative energy and try to turn it around. I had done a Relay many years before and remembered how great the people were there and how positive I had felt afterwards.

In 2005 I decided to look up a local Relay and form a team. At first this was just to help myself deal with the situation at hand. I needed to understand how people deal with the disease and the affects it has on their daily lives.

I have been the team captain of Dick's. Angels for 5 years now. I think the highlight of my Relay career is knowing how proud my dad was to wear that purple survivor sash and to be able to walk around the track. I saw what a difference it made in his life, to be able to have that moment of power to say I am beating this disease. I started to take a different attitude towards the Relay at that time and realized that it was not just to make myself feel better, this was helping all those affected by cancer!

My dad lost his battle with Lung Cancer in August 2009. At his last Relay he was not able to walk around the track. But, he proudly wore that sash and drove a golf cart around the track, with his whole family walking by his side.

This year the Relay will take on a whole new meaning for me. Although it will be hard to do so with out dad there, I will continue to Relay. I will Relay for my dad. I will Relay for your dad, your mom, your grandfather and grandmother, your uncle and aunt, your brother and sister, your son and daughter. I will Relay because I can.