06/Mar/2008
Relay For Life: Annual Event Allows Community to Celebrate Survivors and Remember Lost Loved Ones
By Pat Friedrich
Cancer comes in all shapes and sizes. It touches the lives of our mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers. The sad reality is that it has probably impacted all of us.
Ten years ago it exploded into Veterinarian Gwen Rotkowski’s life when her closest friend was diagnosed with lymphoma.
“When they learned it was cancer, they were too late. We were only 27 years old,” Rotkowski said. “I realized then that there were no rules when it came to cancer. There is no age, race, gender or ethnicity that is excluded.”
Rotkowski turned this terrible loss into one of her life’s missions. A long time volunteer at the American Cancer Society, Rotkowski co-chaired the Relay for Life in St. Francisville before taking over the reigns of the Zachary/Baker Relay for Life.
This year’s event will be held on April 18 at the track behind Lane Regional Medical Center and promises to be spectacular. The relay is not just a jog around the track; instead it is a celebration of life for survivors, an inspiration for others to fight back, and a time to remember those who did not win the battle.
Relay of Hope
Each year the relay begins with cancer survivors taking the first lap. Then members of each team take turns walking. Their immediate goal is to keep one person from their team on the track at all times. Their long term goal is more important; it is to eliminate cancer.
“The money raised from this community event and those across America goes to research. I am passionate about research,” Rotkowski said.
The work done by the researchers is beginning to pay off. The overall survival rate from cancer is now 66 percent.
Men Helping Men
In 2003, Leroy Helire was simply living his life. The principal of Northdale Magnet Academy, Helire said that he just was not feeling well. When Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center offered free prostate screenings, his wife, Diane, convinced him to go. That visit saved his life. The screening was abnormal. Helire was diagnosed with prostrate cancer.
“I knew then that God was sending me a message. I prayed, read my Bible and relied on my faith,” Helire said.
The healing process was slow. During those long days of recovery Helire struggled to find meaning from the devastation that the cancer created. He learned that his time in Vietnam exposed him to high amounts of the herbicide Agent Orange (now linked to cancer). He also learned African-American men have the highest rate of prostate cancer in the world and the lowest rate of survival.
“I got a second chance at life when I came back from Vietnam. And in 2003, I got a third chance,” Helire said. “I started to really live each day to the fullest. Today I am five years cancer free. I am a survivor.”
Overcoming his own battle was not enough for Helire. He knew he had to give back, so he and his fellow church members decided to form an American Cancer Society Man to Man Support Group. The Man to Man program helps men cope with prostate cancer by providing support to patients and their family members. In addition, Man to Man offers community education about prostate cancer. The group also encourages men to actively consider screening for prostate cancer.
The American Cancer Society advises that all men over 40 need their physicians to check for prostate cancer every year. They also stress that African American men and all men with a family history of prostate cancer should also get an annual PSA (prostate specific antigen) blood test. Other men can wait till age 50 for the annual PSA test.
From Zachary and Back
Beetle Boudreaux believes in the absolute goodness of mankind. She ought to know; she is a shining example. When her 15-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia, her world changed.
“Brad was playing basketball and he was just exhausted. He also bruised so easily,” Boudreaux said.
Boudreaux and took her son to his doctor who quickly referred him to an oncologist who immediately sent him to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.
“Brad was diagnosed on a Tuesday and we were at St. Jude by Wednesday,” she said.
That was 11 years ago. Today, thanks to the doctors and scientists working at St. Jude, Brad is married with two children and another one on the way.
Brad had a very aggressive type of leukemia. Two years before his diagnosis, there was nothing the doctors could do for a child with the condition. For Brad, the timing could not have been better. St. Jude was trying a new medical treatment, and for Brad, it worked.
“My heart is still there. There is no other place like it,” Boudreaux said. “While Brad was in treatment, it was our home, and they were our family. It was a wonderful place. I felt safe.
“I quit my job and moved Brad and I there. He was in St. Jude for one year. Every family staying at the Ronald McDonald House had a mailbox. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t open up my mailbox and find letters of support and encouragement from folks in Zachary. Not one day. I couldn’t have made it without their support.”
When she came home, she wanted to give back by giving money to St. Jude to continue research so other children could be saved. She wanted to give thanks to all of the members of the hospital staff that became her extended family, and show family and friends in the Zachary community that they meant everything to her.
She showed her gratitude by getting together with a group of friend to plan a “small golf tournament” at Copper Mill. This year marks the ninth annual St. Jude Golf Tournament to be held on Sept. 7. Last year there were more than 50 teams, countless sponsors, and volunteers who wanted nothing more than to give back.
Never Giving Up Hope
Sometimes the stories do not have perfect endings. Richard and Sue Bean were married 45 years. They spent the first 30 of that traveling as Richard made a career in the Air Force. But in 1982, the Beans received devastating news.
“Richard first got cancer back in 1982. We were in England at the time, but he was sent back to Kessler for the surgery,” Sue Bean said.
In 1996 they returned to Zachary, planning on spending their golden years together in the place they called home. After treatment, they went on with their life, thankful that it had been caught in time. Then in 1997, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Surgeons removed half of his right lung.
In 2005 they were dealt another blow. The cancer came back and doctors did not know what to do, but they did not give up either. Richard went through rounds of radiation and chemotherapy. M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston offered him a clinical trial, but they chose Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center in Baton Rouge where Richard took oral medication.
Richard was now on oxygen. He and Sue battled the cancer and all that came with it. Richard was in and out of the hospital with pneumonia. He lost weight. He got weaker. But he never complained and neither of them ever gave up hope.
Richard did not make it through his third battle with cancer. In the end, Sue was faced with a list of “what ifs?” What if she had done this better, or been there quicker, or noticed that earlier?
The “what ifs” could have beaten Sue. Instead, she chose to be a survivor for both Richard and herself. Rather than give up on life, Sue remembers Richard by participating in the annual Relay for Life, by checking on friends who are also fighting the battle, and by volunteering at Lane Regional Medical Center three times per week.
Ask Sue to describe her husband and without hesitation she answers, “Richard was a wonderful person; a wonderful Christian.” The same could certainly be said of Sue.
By Pat Friedrich
Cancer comes in all shapes and sizes. It touches the lives of our mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers. The sad reality is that it has probably impacted all of us.
Ten years ago it exploded into Veterinarian Gwen Rotkowski’s life when her closest friend was diagnosed with lymphoma.
“When they learned it was cancer, they were too late. We were only 27 years old,” Rotkowski said. “I realized then that there were no rules when it came to cancer. There is no age, race, gender or ethnicity that is excluded.”
Rotkowski turned this terrible loss into one of her life’s missions. A long time volunteer at the American Cancer Society, Rotkowski co-chaired the Relay for Life in St. Francisville before taking over the reigns of the Zachary/Baker Relay for Life.
This year’s event will be held on April 18 at the track behind Lane Regional Medical Center and promises to be spectacular. The relay is not just a jog around the track; instead it is a celebration of life for survivors, an inspiration for others to fight back, and a time to remember those who did not win the battle.
Relay of HopeEach year the relay begins with cancer survivors taking the first lap. Then members of each team take turns walking. Their immediate goal is to keep one person from their team on the track at all times. Their long term goal is more important; it is to eliminate cancer.
“The money raised from this community event and those across America goes to research. I am passionate about research,” Rotkowski said.
The work done by the researchers is beginning to pay off. The overall survival rate from cancer is now 66 percent.
Men Helping Men
In 2003, Leroy Helire was simply living his life. The principal of Northdale Magnet Academy, Helire said that he just was not feeling well. When Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center offered free prostate screenings, his wife, Diane, convinced him to go. That visit saved his life. The screening was abnormal. Helire was diagnosed with prostrate cancer.
“I knew then that God was sending me a message. I prayed, read my Bible and relied on my faith,” Helire said.
The healing process was slow. During those long days of recovery Helire struggled to find meaning from the devastation that the cancer created. He learned that his time in Vietnam exposed him to high amounts of the herbicide Agent Orange (now linked to cancer). He also learned African-American men have the highest rate of prostate cancer in the world and the lowest rate of survival.
“I got a second chance at life when I came back from Vietnam. And in 2003, I got a third chance,” Helire said. “I started to really live each day to the fullest. Today I am five years cancer free. I am a survivor.”
Overcoming his own battle was not enough for Helire. He knew he had to give back, so he and his fellow church members decided to form an American Cancer Society Man to Man Support Group. The Man to Man program helps men cope with prostate cancer by providing support to patients and their family members. In addition, Man to Man offers community education about prostate cancer. The group also encourages men to actively consider screening for prostate cancer.
The American Cancer Society advises that all men over 40 need their physicians to check for prostate cancer every year. They also stress that African American men and all men with a family history of prostate cancer should also get an annual PSA (prostate specific antigen) blood test. Other men can wait till age 50 for the annual PSA test.
From Zachary and Back
Beetle Boudreaux believes in the absolute goodness of mankind. She ought to know; she is a shining example. When her 15-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia, her world changed.
“Brad was playing basketball and he was just exhausted. He also bruised so easily,” Boudreaux said.
Boudreaux and took her son to his doctor who quickly referred him to an oncologist who immediately sent him to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.
“Brad was diagnosed on a Tuesday and we were at St. Jude by Wednesday,” she said.
That was 11 years ago. Today, thanks to the doctors and scientists working at St. Jude, Brad is married with two children and another one on the way.
Brad had a very aggressive type of leukemia. Two years before his diagnosis, there was nothing the doctors could do for a child with the condition. For Brad, the timing could not have been better. St. Jude was trying a new medical treatment, and for Brad, it worked.
“My heart is still there. There is no other place like it,” Boudreaux said. “While Brad was in treatment, it was our home, and they were our family. It was a wonderful place. I felt safe.
“I quit my job and moved Brad and I there. He was in St. Jude for one year. Every family staying at the Ronald McDonald House had a mailbox. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t open up my mailbox and find letters of support and encouragement from folks in Zachary. Not one day. I couldn’t have made it without their support.”
When she came home, she wanted to give back by giving money to St. Jude to continue research so other children could be saved. She wanted to give thanks to all of the members of the hospital staff that became her extended family, and show family and friends in the Zachary community that they meant everything to her.
She showed her gratitude by getting together with a group of friend to plan a “small golf tournament” at Copper Mill. This year marks the ninth annual St. Jude Golf Tournament to be held on Sept. 7. Last year there were more than 50 teams, countless sponsors, and volunteers who wanted nothing more than to give back.
Never Giving Up HopeSometimes the stories do not have perfect endings. Richard and Sue Bean were married 45 years. They spent the first 30 of that traveling as Richard made a career in the Air Force. But in 1982, the Beans received devastating news.
“Richard first got cancer back in 1982. We were in England at the time, but he was sent back to Kessler for the surgery,” Sue Bean said.
In 1996 they returned to Zachary, planning on spending their golden years together in the place they called home. After treatment, they went on with their life, thankful that it had been caught in time. Then in 1997, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Surgeons removed half of his right lung.
In 2005 they were dealt another blow. The cancer came back and doctors did not know what to do, but they did not give up either. Richard went through rounds of radiation and chemotherapy. M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston offered him a clinical trial, but they chose Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center in Baton Rouge where Richard took oral medication.
Richard was now on oxygen. He and Sue battled the cancer and all that came with it. Richard was in and out of the hospital with pneumonia. He lost weight. He got weaker. But he never complained and neither of them ever gave up hope.
Richard did not make it through his third battle with cancer. In the end, Sue was faced with a list of “what ifs?” What if she had done this better, or been there quicker, or noticed that earlier?
The “what ifs” could have beaten Sue. Instead, she chose to be a survivor for both Richard and herself. Rather than give up on life, Sue remembers Richard by participating in the annual Relay for Life, by checking on friends who are also fighting the battle, and by volunteering at Lane Regional Medical Center three times per week.
Ask Sue to describe her husband and without hesitation she answers, “Richard was a wonderful person; a wonderful Christian.” The same could certainly be said of Sue.
Comments
Posted by: Sarah
Status: Guest |
Member since: | Date Posted: 16/Mar/2008 16:42:55
What a beautiful article! It's scary that I know 2 of the people mentioned, but their stories (fortunately, of survival) are inspiring and touching to say the least.
Posted by: Sarah
Status: Guest |
Member since: | Date Posted: 16/Mar/2008 16:43:46
Side note- nice motorcycle!!!!