SURVIVORS CELEBRATE

Relay for Life

cancer event draws throngs to Warren

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

WARREN — The downtown area came alive with thousands of people — many of them cancer survivors — as the American Cancer Society’s Warren Relay For Life kicked off Friday night with the traditional survivors walk around Courthouse Square.

One of the first outdoor events of the spring, the 24-hour event that ends at 6 p.m. today had a joyful feel — in part because the anticipated rain showers had held off, partly because it was a Friday night and partly because so many people were just happy to be alive.

As the cancer survivors kicked off the 24-hour walk by completing the first lap around the square, onlookers clapped and yelled encouragement.

The event annually raises about $500,000 for cancer research. It also features entertainment and other events.

Among the approximately 1,500 cancer survivors was 9-year-old Gracie McCale of Niles, a third-grader at Lincoln Elementary School who was diagnosed with brain cancer in July 2005.

Gracie, who walked the first lap with her grandmother, Bonnie Pyne of Niles, and her sister, Samantha, is the daughter of Sheila and Randy McCale.

She was only 5 when she was diagnosed with an inoperable late-stage tumor at the back of her brain stem that branched out into five smaller tumors.

Through 2005 and 2006, she underwent numerous surgeries, plus radiation and chemotherapy.

Doctors didn’t expect her to live more than a few months, Pyne said, but she has surprised them by becoming stable, with the cancer being held in check for three years.

“She’s the only one who has survived” more than a few months with the type of cancer she has, Pyne said. Doctors call it glioblastoma multiforme. “We call her a miracle,” Pyne said.

After surgery, she had to learn to walk again, so she was in a wheelchair during the 2006 Relay for Life. She was using a walker during the 2007 Relay.

“Now she’s walking fine. She has her strength back,” Pyne said.

Since 2006, she has received routine blood tests and MRIs, but hasn’t needed any further cancer treatments. She got bigger as a result of taking medically prescribed steroids. Now, she is returning to normal 9-year-old’s size, Pyne said.

“We call her healed. A lot of prayer got her that far,” Pyne said, adding that Gracie herself told her doctors, “I’m not going to die. I’m going to live to do God’s work.”

Said Gracie’s aunt, Joanie Fisher: “It’s a day-to-day thing.”

Gracie had a chance to take a trip through the Make a Wish Foundation in 2007 and didn’t hesitate to chose a trip to a Cleveland Indians baseball game.

Along with it came the chance to meet her favorite player, Grady Sizemore.

“Her favorite thing is baseball — the Cleveland Indians,” Pyne said.

Gracie’s family has been participating in the Warren Relay For Life, considered one of the largest in the nation, for nine years. Today the group participates in the memory of Fran Stuffey, Pyne’s sister, who died of cancer in February 2006.

Cancer affects one in three Americans sometime in their life. Every year, 1.4 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer; 500,000 will die from it.

runyan@vindy.com