At least a hundred lights were flickering in Drake Stadium at 9
p.m. on Saturday night.
Each one stood aglow in the name of someone with cancer.
Holding their lights and hugging, the participants of the
American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life fund-raiser ““
the first ever at UCLA ““ shared a lap around the track.
The UCLA relay raised a total of $10,200 for cancer research,
and brought together seven teams of students, families and cancer
survivors.
“This event is to remind people of what’s
important,” said Staci Hoven, the event’s chair and a
first-year student at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
“A lot of us have been affected by cancer.”
After the sun has set, the Luminaria Ceremony is the most
emotional and sobering part of the 24-hour relay, when candles are
traditionally lit in honor and in memory of loved ones.
“You think of people that you’ve lost and people
that you worry about all the time,” said Hoven, who lost her
grandfather to cancer and whose father is a five-year survivor.
Despite the fact that glow sticks were used instead of candles,
which aren’t allowed in Drake Stadium, the ceremony lost none
of its significance or impact.
“It’s really scary to think about how many people
will be diagnosed with cancer,” said Megan Matal, a
first-year aerospace engineering student and chair of the
ceremony.
“This event is about getting together and fighting for the
cause. It gives people hope,” she said.
The relay was started in 1985 by a doctor and avid runner who
ran for 24 hours, and raised $27,000 for ACS.
Since then, relays have been organized annually in over 4,200
communities around the country, as the primary fund-raiser for
ACS.
“You don’t realize how much cancer is in this world
until you’re at an event like this and you see people
surviving it,” said Tracy Lindstron-Matal, Megan’s
stepmother and an eight-year survivor of recurrent breast
cancer.
“People automatically think cancer is a death sentence and
it’s really not,” she said.
The Matals are annual participants of the relays, and had made
the drive down from Sacramento to be at the Westwood event.
At 10 a.m., the relay opened with the survivor lap. Three cancer
survivors, including UCLA political science Associate Professor
Michael Chwe, walked around the track amid cheers.
Survivors like Chwe and Lindstron-Matal come to these events to
share hope and camaraderie with a community that, unfortunately, is
large and growing.
“A lot of positive things come out of cancer,”
Lindstron-Matal said.
“You meet a lot of people, you help a lot of people. Even
if it’s just a smile across the way ““ if you walk in
the shoes of a cancer survivor, you know.”
Two of the teams were composed of students from the residence
halls, many of whom spent the night in tents in Drake Stadium even
though they live across the street.
“We felt it was really important to support this event in
its first year so it can keep going in the future,” said Adam
Boyles, a program assistant in Courtside and a fourth-year Spanish
and Portuguese student with a minor in Latin American studies.
“I think it’s cool that there are a lot of young
people,” he said. “To see first-years come out to
support this for 24 hours is really amazing.”
Though the highest percentages of cancer incidence are reported
in people 85 and older, cancer is indiscriminate of age.
“Cancer is a reality, but it’s not a popular topic
among youth,” said Julie Young, who has been active with ACS
ever since she was diagnosed with cancer four years ago.
“When you join people who are fighting, who have already
fought and won, it gives you strength,” she said.
Fund-raising teams enjoyed refreshments and live music as one
member of the team remained walking or running on the track at all
times.
The money raised by Saturday’s relay, and the thousands of
others that are held annually across the country, will largely be
donated to cancer research, including studies at UCLA.
From 2002 to 2003, the ACS provided nearly $14 million in
funding to cancer research in California alone, giving a national
total of over $100 million that year.
“Everyone has been touched by cancer,” said Mariana
Pierce, a second-year psychology student and member of the Navy
ROTC relay team.
“Everyone in some part of their life is touched by ACS
because the research that they do affects everyone.”