Relay for Life at USU brings cancer survivors, their supporters and mourners together

Hundreds of people gathered Friday in the Nelson Fieldhouse for Utah State University’s annual Relay for Life to raise funds to fight cancer and create a supportive environment for those battling cancer. Many of the participants knew someone who had cancer. Some even had cancer themselves.

After the Luminaria Ceremony with candles lit in honor of those who were fighting or lost the fight to cancer, the relay around the track began with the Survivors Lap. The rest of the participants then took to the Fieldhouse track, joining the survivors in a continuous relay that lasted all night.

Many people at the event had their faith and world view altered by cancer. The majority of attendees did not directly fight cancer, but had loved ones or friends who had dealt with it.

Tylar Glenn, a sophomore at Utah State, had a grandfather who won his battle with bladder cancer. Although his grandfather emerged victorious, Glenn said when his grandfather was initially diagnosed it was hard to deal with.

“It was definitely one of the low points in my life,” he said. “I just went and drove for two hours blasting my music. It didn’t seem fair to me.”

At the event, friends and relatives of those who had cancer often said it influenced whether they thought bad things happen to good people.

“It showed me it’s all subjective, it’s all random,” Glenn said. “I don’t think there’s a grand scheme behind everything.”

Ben Dansie, a Utah State senior, was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and had a private trombone instructor he was close with who died of cancer when he was 13 years old.

“It felt so helpless. She was such a wonderful person; like an anchor to me,” he said. “She never did anything wrong, she had a healthy lifestyle. She didn’t deserve it.”

Dansie said that when she died, he had never felt so helpless.

“Karen gave so much to me, and she pushed me to places I never thought I’d be at such a young age,” he said. “And I can’t give it back to her. That’s why I come to Relay for Life, because it’s a way to give back something.”

Dansie said his instructor’s death made him realize that good people were vulnerable to bad things, despite the common idea in Mormon culture that if you do what you’re supposed to you will receive blessings for it.

Glenn isn’t religious, but most people with a belief in God said they had an easier time coping with the effects of having or knowing someone with cancer.

“Death sucks, and there’s going to be pain and suffering in this life,” said Zach McEntire, a USU sophomore and returned LDS missionary whose uncle was diagnosed with cancer. “But it’s comforting to know that after this life, I will see my family again. That gave me the comfort to carry on when my uncle was diagnosed.

Despite living a healthy life and being diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, Lori Peterson, a survivor from Tremonton, Utah, never asked ‘Why me?’

“I’ve never been sick, never broken a bone, never had stitches,” she said. “I had been healthy my whole life so I thought okay, this is my challenge.”

An active Mormon, Peterson said although she accepted it, the diagnosis still shocked her initially.

“I remember driving home and looking at things on my way home, just thinking ‘I might not be seeing this soon,’” Peterson said.

The shock faded eventually and she said that in the long run, the ordeal strengthened her faith tremendously.

“Everything that I believed in before I really feel like I know to be true now,” Peterson said.

Peterson insisted that she was grateful she for being diagnosed with cancer and wouldn’t want to change that if she could.

She said that the experience has helped her to appreciate everything in life to the fullest.

“I used to be a clean freak and have to have everything my way,” Peterson said. “Now I can let things go and be happy with them. I don’t worry anymore. It’s a wonderful blessing.”

After battling it for a few years, Peterson’s cancer went into remission, but then it came back. She wasn’t phased.

“We’ve all got to live and die,” she said. “You’re going to go somehow.”

Peterson’s cancer is currently in remission once more. She said she loves every minute of every day, no matter what happens.