Walkers unite against cancer
TWENTY one teams, 414 walkers and united, the South Gippsland community stood as one.
Relay for Life is one of the most impressive displays of community that one could wish to encounter.
For the second year in a row Fish Creek, hosted Relay for Life at Terrill Park on Saturday and people of all ages participated in the knowledge people can make a difference.
This fight against cancer is not a dour event but a colourful display of togetherness with walkers circling the recreation reserve oval for 18 hours, representing the journey of a cancer sufferer: setting out from the diagnosis through the long night of the fight and as dawn breaks, the hope of being cured.
The chair of the Cancer Council relay for Life, Irene Gale, told the walkers assembled before they set out on their long walk, “Cancer does not sleep and we do not sleep in out fight for a cure. We come together as a community. For the future we walk.”
She told the walkers that on this day, 5000 communities in 23 countries around the world were walking with them and that included nine other relays in Victoria.
A highlight of the relay was the traditional candlelight ceremony, a time to remember those lost to cancer and to show support for those living with it.
Walkers placed candle tributes with personal messages around the track and they lit up the way as they continued to burn throughout the night.
Bill Rodda, representing the Korumburra Fire Brigade, spoke movingly about the cancer journey his wife Maureen went through before losing her battle last year.
On any given day in Victoria, 78 people will learn they have cancer and the $73,000 raised by Relay for Life for the Cancer Council of Victoria is a gift of hope for each one of them.
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