Relay for Life kicks off at YSU

April 15, 2016 at 8:43p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

The annual series of local events in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life began Friday evening at Youngstown State University.

The events raise awareness of cancer and money to help fight it, and they offer fellowship and support for survivors.

Among the attendees at the YSU event were two sisters from Trumbull County, both breast cancer survivors, who are in remission, both having worked at the General Electric Ohio Lamp Plant in Warren.

The siblings, Violet Stinedurf of Howland, and Helen Emery of Bristolville, who wore purple cancer survivor T-shirts, are regular participants in Relay for Life events in the Mahoning Valley.

“I’ve been coming to all the relays since I went through my cancer. I’ve had it three times now,” said Emery, who has undergone surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

Emery first had breast cancer in 1997, with a recurrence in 2004.

Last year, after the cancer reappeared in her hip, she underwent hip replacement and her femur was replaced with a titanium rod.

“Hopefully, we’ll find a cure for cancer and we won’t need relays any longer,” Emery said.

Stinedurf said she hopes the event encourages cancer patients to accept treatments.

Some cancer patients, who have declined treatments, have conveyed to her a fatalistic attitude about the disease, Stinedurf lamented.

“You need to go get the treatments, and that helps heal the cancer — not in all cases, but the majority of them,” said Stinedurf, who experienced radiation and surgery after having been diagnosed with cancer six years ago.

Her message to breast cancer survivors: “Go every year and get your mammograms,” and perform daily breast self-examinations.

The Relay for Life is popular in many communities, year after year, because of the camaraderie it offers, said Ayla Zerbe, an Akron-based American Cancer Society community manager.

“Everyone is looking for support in different ways, whether it’s because they lost somebody, or they’re fighting their own journey; and they find people that are similar, who have gone through the same (challenges) that can offer that support that you can’t find other places,” Zerbe explained.