Come celebrate Carnival for a Cure with us Friday

Posted
I hate cancer. I despise it. I wish it had a face so I could spit in it, so that I could punch it. Fourteen years ago, I lost my maternal grandmother, a woman who had a huge role in helping raise me, to her second bout of colon cancer. I’ve had two uncles battle colon cancer, and several great aunts battle breast and cervical cancer. Jennie Ruth Richardson was not a typical grandmother. She was a spitfire, hell on wheels even. She suffered no fools and took backtalk from no one, including any man. We were particularly close, and losing her was like losing a parent for me. Cancer eventually touches everyone. Last year, it touched Leigh Ann’s family, taking her father, Gregg, just six months after his diagnosis. On Friday, she and I will come together with hundreds of survivors and caregivers, along with countless supporters and family members to celebrate those who have defeated cancer, and remember those that we lost too soon to the disease. This year’s Relay will be raw, as it comes on the heels of the passing of 26-year-old Kerrie Cribb, who this time last year was diagnosed with a rare form of cervical cancer. I first met Kerrie when she came in last year to ask us if she could pay to publish a thank you note for those who had supported her brother, Kevin, during his recuperation from a terrible motorcycle wreck in early 2015. At the time, Kerrie knew she was sick. But she didn’t ask anything for herself; rather, she just wanted to thank the community for being so supportive of her family. We ran the thank you note as a letter to the editor on our perspectives page. Roughly six months later, Kerrie walked through our doors again. She had another thank you note. She wanted to pay us to run it and a picture thanking those supporting her during her fight with cancer. At the time, she was scheduled to have a hysterectomy. It depended on her finding out in just a few weeks if her tumor had shrunk at all. She was cheerful and hopeful. She was grateful and gracious when I asked her if I could write her story, if I could have her be our first in a series of what would become 14 cancer survivor and caregiver stories from January through now. Throughout all the fundraising from Kerrie’s friends and her church, Manning United Methodist Church, she was always quick to thank those helping her. She frequently returned messages, with supporters saying she comforted them more than they felt they comforted her. Every year that I have been involved with Relay, I spend a lot of time that night interviewing survivors, asking them, “What does Relay mean to you?” I ask caregivers and other supporters, “Whom are you Relaying for?” I have always Relayed for my grandmother, someone who, though she lived a long life, was still taken far too soon by a disease that we should be working night and day to eradicate. This year, I will Relay for Grandma once again. But this year, I will also Relay for Kerrie, a unique spirit whom I feel honored to have known. I will Relay for Justin Shorter, a colon cancer survivor. I will Relay for the late Nell Black. I will Relay for Pat Fenters. I will Relay for Mary Howard. I will Relay for Daun Davis. I will Relay for Genie Hodge. I will Relay for Judy Furse. I will Relay for Gregg Huggins. At some point, you or someone you loved will be touched by some type of cancer. It will be your spouse, your parent, your child, your grandchild. Ask yourself if you have just a little bit of time from 6 p.m. to midnight Friday to come celebrate Carnival for a Cure with us at Manning High School’s Ramsey Stadium, and help us take one more step toward eradicating this nightmare. Whom will you Relay for?