By EMILY BEHLMANN

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ebehlmann@gctelegram.com

It was to be a long night for the several hundred people who packed Garden City Community College's Dennis Perryman Athletic Complex Friday evening through this morning, walking lap after lap around the gym in a test of endurance symbolic of an exhausting battle with cancer.

Why were they doing it? The reason was printed on the T-shirts they wore: "Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back."

That's the theme of this year's Relay for Life, an annual fundraising event for the American Cancer Society. One of more than 4,800 events nationwide, the local one this year has 43 teams made up of area residents.

Each team has collected donations that go toward cancer research, and each tries to keep at least one team member walking around the gym at all times through the night. Fundraising totals weren't available at press time.

Celebrate

Kaye Shearmire used the night to celebrate.

Today marks her fourth birthday, as in her fourth year of being cancer-free, she told participants during a keynote address. She was diagnosed with Burkitt's non-hodgkins lymphoma, a type of cancer, at a time when she was 49 and fretting about seeing her 50th birthday come around.

"For six months, I was fighting for life," and her doctor told her she was cancer-free just a week before she turned 50, she said. "I was never so happy to have a birthday."

About 60 other area residents, honored with purple T-shirts and white sashes, also spent Friday night celebrating life as survivors of cancer. They received cheers and hugs as they kicked off the relay by making the first lap around the gym, and their names were printed on luminarias, white paper bags with candles inside that were to be lit during a ceremony during the night.

Remember

Constance Kells used the night to remember.

Seven years ago, her father lost a battle with cancer that lasted several years, she said. During that time, he had volunteered as a research patient, so scientists could test potential treatments not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

"The hope was to get those approved for future patients," she said.

Kells, who works in the business office at Siena Medical Clinic, said watching what her father underwent was "amazing." It prompted her to join Siena nurse Denise Mohlman in leading the Siena St. Catherine Hospital Relay for Life team, which raised more than $7,000 this year.

"I felt I needed to put a little of my effort toward (cancer research), too," Kells said.

Fight back

Roni Knight and Nancy Woods used the night to fight back.

Co-Chairwomen of the local Relay for Life, Knight and Woods each have been affected by cancer. Knight has lost several family members to the disease, but she said her father's death was "the topper."

Woods underwent cancer herself, though she has been free of the disease for eight years. She said she started participating in Relay for Life as a team member before she had cancer, but the meaning of the event changed when she was diagnosed. Now, cancer research is even more important to her, she said.

Relay leaders spent the night encouraging others to fight back, too. Participants were asked not just to raise money, but also to pledge to do something that could increase the odds of cancer survival, like getting a colonscopy or driving someone to a doctor's appointment, Woods said.

She said seeing the event in action, and seeing survivors return year after year, is always emotional for her.

"It's a great showing of support from the whole community," Woods said.