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Team spirit fuels 24-hour Relay for Life
Boardman Relay For Life
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Cancer survivors celebrated their victory in Boardman.
BOARDMAN — When Holly Sodeman was 14 years old, her mother was diagnosed with colon cancer.
Kathy Comisa, Holly’s mom, had lost her own father to colon cancer not long before her diagnosis in November 1990.
Kathy felt sick, but thought she was just under too much stress “because of my dad’s death and taking care of my mom.”
She went to the doctor and found herself in surgery days later.
Through six months of chemotherapy and three months of radiation, she worried about who would take care of Holly.
Holly worried too. “I wanted to make sure she was OK,” she said as she sat next to her mom in the stands at Spartan Stadium at the Boardman Center Middle School on Friday night.
Friday was the start of Boardman’s 24-hour Relay for Life. The relays are the American Cancer Society’s annual community events that celebrate cancer survivors, remember those who died, and raise money for research with teams of 10 to 15 people who continuously take turns walking around a track.
Kathy had just been named Relay Queen at the opening ceremony. Holly, now 34, had nominated her.
“She has always been there for me and my family,” Holly said. “I have been so lucky to have a mom like her.”
When Holly was in her late 20s and raising her son Tommy on her own, she met Philip Sodeman.
They began dating in April 2002, and months later talked about getting married.
Seven months into their relationship, Philip began experiencing terrible pain in his groin. At 28, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
Holly remembers being concerned about whether the couple could have children. She was also concerned about “the surgery and chemotherapy and his survival,” she said. But she never reconsidered the relationship. “I knew I wanted to be with this man,” she said.
The couple were married May 15, 2004. On their fifth wedding anniversary Friday, Philip was named Relay King at Boardman. Holly had nominated him too.
With the couple and Comisa Friday were Tommy, 13, whom Philip adopted, and Grace, 21 months, whom they had through invitrofertilization.
Five-month-old Zachary was there too — the bonus baby who made his presence known when his mother felt run-down — “I felt like I was pregnant” — seven months after Grace was born.
“No invitro!” Holly said.
Kathy and Philip helped lead the first lap around the track — the survivors’ victory lap.
The family would not be staying all night like many people do at the relays, but they would stay for the luminaria lighting and the memorial to remember Philip’s mother. She died of breast cancer in April 2007, four months before Grace was born.
Events scheduled today include a celebrity brunch with state and local politicians from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The brunch is $5 a person, said Mark Luke, relay co-chairman.
People can also go to www.relayforlife.org/boardman to make donations, Luke said.
One hundred-twelve teams are participating at Boardman, and Liberty’s relay continues today at Churchill Park.