Relay For Life

A few weekends ago I attended the Tehachapi version of Relay for Life.

This event is a coming together of many people, from all walks of life that are suffering from cancer, are recovering from cancer, getting treatment for cancer, or have a friend or family member that has cancer or has passed away because of cancer. As lay people, we could debate the causes and reasons for cancer for the rest of our days; however, that won’t magically bring cancer to its knees. What does help is money; and a boatload of it. What Relay for Life does is raise money; a boatload of it.

Kern County has a reputation for being at the top of the list for raising money via Relay for Life.

Tehachapi is of course part of Kern County and by default is successful at raising money via Relay for Life.

All the money raised by Relay for Life goes for research and helping cancer patients financially in many different ways.

I personally have been touched by cancer. My older brother, Alan, passed away 9 years ago from a form of Leukemia. At about the same time he died I was diagnosed with Melanoma, which was successfully removed. After I recovered from the surgery the doctor told me that when they did blood tests they found I had the same Leukemia as my brother. Freaked me out. I saw what my brother went through. I told my Oncologist that only one type of cancer at a time was enough. I was lucky. The chemo worked and the Leukemia is gone. I still have to go to my Dermatologist and have him slice out all the other skin cancers that crop up. The MOHS procedure is fun; sitting there for 20 or 30 minutes, waiting to see if he got it all with the first slice. If not, he takes another slice and you wait for another 20 or 30 minutes. And, so on and so on. But, the end result is worth the wait. That skin cancer is permanently removed.

Anyway, that’s enough about my history.

For Relay next year, my office will be forming a team to participate and try to raise more money for this great cause. We welcome volunteers to help us in any way possible. We will start early and build a strong organization for fun events, fundraisers and any other activities that might help the cause. If you are a patient at my office I hope that you won’t get tired of all the stuff we will be doing to raise awareness and of course raise money.

You will be hearing more from us soon.