Survivors, families, gather for Relay

link Staff photo: Brittney Cannon

Parker Davis, 7, practices her back handspring at Relay for Life on Saturday afternoon at Hillcrest Park.

Fight. Battle. Survive. Dream.

These are some of the words you kept hearing over and over and over again Saturday at the 20th annual Relay for Life event when talking to cancer survivors and their families.

Among the survivors was Sandy Albright, the spokesperson for Relay for Life this year. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, Albright knew she had an uphill battle to fight from the start.

“I found out about a month later that it had spread to my lymph nodes,” Albright said. “I went through grueling chemotherapy, radiation, the whole nine yards. And at some points, I thought I was gonna die, but I survived it.”

Albright’s family is quite familiar with the disease — her mother survived breast cancer, and her older sister is battling Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which doesn’t have a cure.

“But she’s been successful,” Albright said. “She goes every six months for treatments. She’s a survivor, and my mother survived, so it’s been a family history of cancer.”

Jan Salazor-Chavez’s family is also familiar with cancer’s brutal reality. Her two aunts and a cousin on her father’s side of the family battled breast cancer. When she found a lump, she just thought it was a cyst.

“But it wasn’t; it was cancer,” Salazor-Chavez said. “I’m a survivor. I took the radiation and the chemo 28 years ago. Because of the research, I feel I’m alive. We’re going to eradicate cancer because of things like this.”

Eric Denton, who relayed with the Redneck Renegades on Saturday, said his family along with the Bell and Alan families decided to relay in honor and in memory of his two grandparents that fought battles against the disease.

“A year ago now, my (maternal) grandpa was re-diagnosed with cancer for the second time,” Denton said. “It was prostate cancer 10 years ago, and it was bone cancer this time.”

A week later, Denton said his paternal grandmother was diagnosed with lymph node cancer.

“Both of them started chemo at the same time,” Denton said. “Fortunately my granny went through five treatments of chemo and is cancer free now. Unfortunately, my grandpa wasn’t the same story.”

Denton’s grandfather lost his battle with cancer on Wednesday. On Friday, they held his funeral.

“So, after we sat there and watched them two battle it, we decided we’ll do one this year,” Denton said. “My mother organized everything and put it all together.”

The Denton’s fundraising idea, he said, was to stick pink flamingoes in everyone’s yard. The team’s camper was adorned with red Solo cups, camouflage and the pink flamingoes.

“If you got flocked, then you had to donate to the Redneck Renegades for Relay for Life,” he said.

Relay for Life Regional Director Dorothy Nelson, who began Relay for Life in Clovis in 1996, has had several bouts with cancer over the last 28 years. Her battle with breast cancer began in 1984.

“My two kids were 3 and 5 when I had my first episode,” she said, “and I thought, ‘I need to raise my babies.’ It’s all I wanted.”

And Nelson got that, plus the chance to rock her six grandchildren after her second battle with cancer in 1997.

“It’s hard to believe. But I’m good now, and you know, we’ve raised so much money for a cure. I just don’t want my kids or my grandkids to go through that,” Nelson said. “It’s scary, but I’m no longer afraid. I’m not. I’ve just managed to keep on.”

And with the help of coworkers, friends and family, so has Albright.

“I think that if you have the will to fight it, that you can get through it,” Albright said. “There’s just so many different emotions when you have cancer. You’re broken on the inside and the outside, but it doesn’t stay that way. The more that you fight, you come through it.”