Hello everyone, I just got back from the local Relay for Life walk. I am continually amazed by the generosity of people. I am also amazed at the number of people who are affected by this disease. I know for each survivor, caregiver, and family there are probably 4 times as many that weren't there. It is great to see so many people together working for a common cause. It's like this forum. I enjoy being continually suprised that people still care about people enough to help and sacrifice for one another. Lee

Hi Lee,

Was curious if there was anything at your Relay about Oral Cancer. Other than when we did oral cancer screenings at ours last year, there never seems to be anything about OC. One year, as we walked around the track, there were signs that mentioned many types of cancer, but not OC.

Our Relay is next Sat. & Sun. up here. Unfortunately that was a bad weekend for my office with 2 hygienists and two doctors being away. I am one of them and I spearheaded the screenings. So we won't be doing them this year. We had a great booth setup last year with banners provided by Brian. Plenty of handouts etc., but the weather was horrible.

Hope you are doing and feeling well.

Jerry

I walked in one with my oral surgeon and his staff on June 1. My surgeon is also my cousin, and his staff put together a team because they had all become pretty familiar with my story.

It was my first walk, and it was amazing. We were the oral cancer team of the relay, and I had taken a bunch of OCF brochures along.

I am really pleased to say I did not bring a single one home, and I spent many hours talking to people about oral cancer. I know that I will be back next year. It's a very cool thing
Wayne

You know Jerry for the most part it seemed to be mostly breast cancer and probably prostate. I say this because I only noticed maybe two people with head and neck scars. There also was not much reference to it at any time. I hope to be more active with it next year and maybe bring in some awareness. Considering I live in KY I know we probably have more oral cases than what I seen. It was still a very humbling event.

The walk for life are great. Just the fact that you are there makes people aware of oral cancer.
What is so alarming to me is the amount of people that have cancer. Thease walks bring us all together for the same cause, and its remarkable how much it helps all those that are affected. When I go back to my home town for the walk for life, and see how many of people I know have died or are being treated now, wonder whats in the water, why are there so many people getting Cancer?

Our Uncle went to our local Relay for Life out in Riverhead, Long Island last Friday evening and unfortunately, he went alone because we had an all day family event to run for our marriage ministry the next day. He said there was no mention of Oral Cancer at ours. We will go with him next year. It sounded like a very nice thing to do. He enjoyed being around people who had lost someone they love to cancer, and buying and lighting a candle for Aunt Ro brought him some peace- of sorts. I think the "we are family" aspect of it is very nice.

Lisa

Hi Lisa, I am so glad your Uncle went and was comforted a bit. I normally attend the dinner at our Local Relay for Life and walk the survivor's lap. One year someone there was selling ribbons and had certain colors for each type of cancer, oral cancer was one of them.....but that was about the only mention of oral cancer I saw. Love, Carol

I think you really have to make a point of talking about oral cancer at these sorts of events. When we did the Relay, our entire team focused on oral cancer (most team members work in my cousins dental office).

We attracted quite a bit of attention. Many people hadn't even considered oral cancer, and certainly didn't view it as the killer that it is. I spent a lot of time that evening talking to people about my experience, and handing out brochures. We really have to be our own advocates in this fight. There are so many types of cancer that receive much more publicity and funding, we get a bit lost in the shuffle
Wayne