Relay For Life 2013 – and remembering Susan

A year ago on this day, 6 February, my good friend Susan Niebur (WhyMommy) died of inflammatory breast cancer.

Susan Niebur, 1972 – 2012 (photo credit: Kristen, @mommy4cocktails)

Since then, another friend, Jenny, a fellow New Zealander whom I had “met” online through Susan, also died of inflammatory breast cancer.

My own family has also been touched – no, not touched, smashed into – by cancer.  Cancer doesn’t visit lightly.

As you may know, for the past couple of years Pearl and I have taken part in the local Relay For Life to raise funds for the NZ Cancer Society.  We can’t run this year, but we are still supporting the Relay.  My sister – The Fabulous Auntie B – and her children are still managing a team.  We will help them raise funds and cheer them on from the sidelines in March during the event.

I hope you will continue to support Relay – whether it’s our team in our event, or another team, or your local event – in whatever way possible.  If you know me in real life and would like to donate to our team, please contact me for details.

If you don’t know me in real life but would still like to donate – hooray! Please go to the Relay For Life website and donate to any team you like.  Or find your own local Relay For Life or Cancer Society webpage and donate there instead.  The important thing is to help these societies support people with cancer and their families.

Celebrate – Remember – Fight Back!

For Susan, for her family – Curt, Widget, Little Bear.  For her friends, too many to number here, but including Marty, Stimey, Kristen, Jessica, Kelley.

For Jenny, and her family and friends.

For my family.

For your family.

For ourselves, should we ever need it – they’ll be there.

© UpsideBackwards 2013.

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Relay for Life 2012

Tributes

Last night, Pearl and I slept rough in a local park.  Although, to be truthful, there was very little sleeping.  There was quite a lot of walking, and some running.  Pearl was very excited to be up and on the Relay track at midnight, walking with her cousin and young friends.  We each did our assigned three 30-minute shifts, and walked alongside our team-mates at various other times as well.  There’s something very special about walking the track with friends in the small hours of the morning, looking up at the stars, chatting, listening to the music.

Pearl & her cousin run a lap in the Relay For Life 2012

We decorated candle bags in memory of family and friends, and stood sombrely with all the other relayers during the touching memorial service.

Candle Bags

There were 13 hearts on my bag this year, 13 precious people to remember. That's two more than last year, and thirteen too many to have lost.

Our team had set a fundraising goal of $200 per team member.  Thanks to family, friends, Pearl’s badge sales, and my sweet-toothed colleagues who ate as much white-chocolate fudge as I could provide them with at $2 per bag, the two of us raised over $570 – thank you, everyone!  That money will help the NZ Cancer Society to:

•  provide people affected with cancer with important support and resources
•  fund the volunteer driving service (free service to those undergoing cancer treatment – they are picked up by volunteer drivers, taken to their appointments and the volunteers wait for them and take them home again)
• operate the free phone line 0800CANCER – any cancer any question
• offer counselling and support to people with cancer and their caregivers
• help make schools SunSmart and work towards a smokefree NZ
• support people with their accommodation when they have to travel for treatment
• fund vital cancer research into the causes and treatments of cancer

(Info above provided by the NZ Cancer Society).

You can still donate here.  If you know our names in real life, sponsor us! If not, sponsor anyone, make their day!

Of course, Relay is not all sombre.  Far from it!  There were laughs and hijinks, entertainment and giveaways, impromptu performances and some truly execrable karaoke about 1am.  There were free massages provided, and a very welcome hot breakfast served by volunteers.

We came home exhausted, footsore, chilled, and feeling a bit grimy… and well aware that anyone undergoing cancer treatment feels a whole lot worse, for a whole lot longer.  But we’re also proud of ourselves and our team, and grateful for the support of friends, family – and blog readers! – for such a great cause.

Susan remembered on the big screen at Relay For Life 2012.

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

Relay for Life 2012

We’re doing it again.  Pearl and I will run (walk) in our local Relay For Life event on 31 March this year.

The funds we raise will go to the NZ Cancer Society, to support cancer patients, survivors, and their families.

If you know us, and would like to sponsor us, you can donate here: Relay For Life.  If you don’t know us but would still like to donate, feel free!  Where it says “choose a team”, just pick one you like the sound of – the donations all go to the same place and that’s the important thing.

Other things you can do:

– join a team in your local relay – it’s a world-wide effort

– donate to your local Cancer Society

– think of a friend who has been touched by cancer (everyone knows someone), and send them a card telling them you love them.

This is a cause dear to my heart, and I’ll be blogging about it a bit in the coming months.

Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back!

© UpsideBackwards 2012.