1,400 cancer survivors take part in relay

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Over the last 17 years, the American Cancer Society Relay For Life in Warren has raised around $6 million for cancer research and programming, making it the largest Relay For Life in the state.

Friday night’s turnout demonstrated why.

At the start of the Survivor’s Lap, the kickoff to the 24-hour fund-raising event, roughly 1,400 cancer survivors filled two of the four streets around Courthouse Square.

“I think we’ve had more [survivors] than we’ve ever had before,” said Pam Marshall Wilson of Howland, manager of community events for the American Cancer Society.

If the weather cooperated, she said, she expected the Warren relay to raise over $400,000 and top the $6 million mark by 6 p.m. today.

The survivor’s lap was crowded with survivors of all types — a family with several children, an elderly couple, someone in a wheel chair, a vibrant looking woman with a huge smile, a 50-something man in blue jeans.

A young man with tattoos and a pierced ear said he was glad to be interviewed because he thinks people don’t believe that a young guy like him gets cancer.

“I need to show people that anyone can get cancer,” said Dan Pallante, 25, of Warren, who works at Hot Topics in Eastwood Mall, a store that caters to people who like piercings and dark clothing.

“We’re just like anybody else,” he said.

“I’m only 25 years old. I want to live a long life still,” he said.

Pallante said there has been a lot of cancer in his family: both of his grandmothers, a grandfather who died from the disease and an aunt.

Pallante was diagnosed three years ago with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the same disease as star hockey player Mario Lemieux, but Pallante said his cancer is in remission. His six months of chemotherapy was “the worst thing I’ve ever been through,” but he’s doing well now, the 2003 Howland High School graduate said.

Patrick Cline of Warren, a kidney-cancer survivor (2000 diagnosis), has been active in the Warren Relay For Life since 1996. His family, which has experienced a lot of cancer, raised roughly $80,000 between 2004 and 2008 for the American Cancer Society, he said.

But three years ago, his 15-year-old daughter, Abigail, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and he was disappointed in what he learned: One of the Cleveland facilities his family’s hard work had helped to fund was not able to help him or his daughter in return.

It’s a facility that provides a place for cancer patients and their families to rest and stay while they are in Cleveland.

It doesn’t accept children, Cline said.

“Mostly, the American Cancer Society focuses on adults,” said Cline, who works at Cleveland Clinic. The organization also seems to focus its efforts on three major types of cancer: lung, breast and colon, he said, adding that he thinks the organization “should help everybody equally.”

One person who knows a lot about this was close at hand — Dr. Bob Brodell, a Warren dermatologist who is a member of the national and Ohio American Cancer Society boards of directors and co-chairman of the Warren relay.

The American Cancer Society has set a goal of achieving a 50 percent reduction in the cancer-death rate and a 25 percent reduction in the number of people getting cancer between 1992 and 2015, Brodell said.

The organization believes there are several specific things that will allow the organization to reach this lofty goal, he said:

• Encourage people to quit smoking, through such efforts as outlawing smoking in public places.

• Encourage people to get colon screenings starting at age 50 and continuing at the appropriate pace after that.

• Encourage people to use sunscreen and do the things that prevent skin cancer.

And a new campaign aimed at women called “Choose You” will encourage women to do the things necessary to diagnose cancer early, such as mammograms.

“The key is to invest in things that will have the biggest impact,” Brodell said.