This is the sixth in a series of personal stories on “Why I Relay” from people whose lives have been touched by cancer. These will run up until the 2009 Rowan County Relay for Life fundraiser on Friday and Saturday.
Chloe McNeely of Cool Springs Road, Cleveland wrote: I am in Relay for Life at West Rowan Middle School because I want to help find a cure for cancer.
When I was about 7 years old, my dad, Brian McNeely, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in his back. He lived with it for 4 months before passing away in December 2003.
I have other friends and family members who are battling cancer right now, and I hope they will live to get cured from this terrible disease that has already taken too many lives.
I want to help families who are battling cancer now. With new treatments, maybe they will have a longer life to live and less struggles.
It would make me feel good to know that I have made a difference in peoples’ lives because cancer is serious and can have an affect on many people. Cancer has had a big impact on my life, so this is why I Relay.

Regan Wike of Rockwell, an 11th-grader at East Rowan High School, wrote: My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer long before I truly understood the significance of it.
While maturing and becoming more aware of the impact it was having on my family, I lost my grandmother and my aunt to the horrible disease. Each had breast cancer, but died of liver cancer.
Talk about the toll cancer can take on a family. I realize that because people like you and me support Relay, I get to continue to help my mom live every day of her life to the fullest, but most of all, to spend time with me.
I thank God every day for Relay and for my mom. I Relay not only for those who have lost the fight, but for the ones who have survived.
Pam Hylton Coffield of Stitchin’ Post Gifts, 104 S. Main St., wrote: My mother got it first in 1994 ó the “C word,” cancer ó a word we could hardly utter at the time.
Mama was the first person close to me to get it. The diagnosis was non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
My brother had it twice. Sadly, his second cancer, glioblastoma, took his life.
My mother-in-law and my dad survived colon cancer. My best friend survived breast cancer. I just learned this week that one of my good customers has lung cancer and another one, breast cancer.
The list goes on and on. I’m sure you can relate. This awful disease has entered our lives with the devastation of a plague.
Most of us, if not all of us, have been affected by cancer one way or another. That is why my staff and I at Stitchin’ Post decided to make Rowan Relay for Life the focus of our Girl’s Night Out event on March 26th.
This event was an evening of shopping bliss complete with a bartender and doorman. Our customers were thrilled that part of their purchases that night went to further cancer research.
We were able to donate $400 to Relay and decided to make our Girl’s Night Out an annual event to benefit Rowan Relay for Life. Check our Web site at www.spgifts.com for the date of the next Girl’s Night Out.

Betty Goodlett Clark of Hemlock Drive wrote:
I can think of many reasons to participate in the Rowan Relay for Life event. I will share a few.
Ten years ago, I was invited to the event by a young lady who was fighting for her life because of the disease, cancer. We attended the event the following year.
The third year, my friend experienced her “homecoming” when she entered her eternal home.
My days of observing, enjoying the food and fellowship with old and new friends and my family had ended. My thoughts concerning Relay for Life were getting more serious. “What can I do at the event?” I wondered.
I began to appreciate my life more and wanted to give God thanks for his word and wonderful, marvelous works and his healing power for you and me. I have been an individual who has been in and out of hospitals with several life-threatening illnesses since childhood, but God allowed me to live ó in spite of what doctors reported to my mom.
I understood much about the reason to Relay. In 1986, when I received that dreadful and death-sounding message, “You have cancer,” I felt like my life would end, no more grace from God.
This kind of thinking was far from the truth in God’s word. Yes, this month, I celebrate 23 years of healing from breast cancer. I’m glad to be counted with the survivors.
I am now a Relay team captain and receive much support from my husband, Preston, “Rejoice” team members, family and friends. We celebrate. We remember. We fight back by raising funds.
In my fifth year at the Relay event, I was joined by family from Atlanta, my son, Chris, and his wife; my daughter, Jenell; her dad, Larry; and my grandchildren, Gloria and Colby. Every year, we set up our tent at the event. Sometimes we cook, and we walk and fellowship. It’s my party time.
This has become an annual event for my family. Last year, we were joined by family members from Capital Hills, Md., and a second tent for the Rejoice Team was needed.
We celebrate, but we also remember and pray that healing from pain, grief and suffering will come to the family members and friends of many persons who have experienced death caused by cancer.
I would like to thank all leaders and the American Cancer Society for the event. Remember Psalm 107:8 ó Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men.
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249.