New life injected into cancer relay
Relay for Life has bounced back this year for its 10th anniversary after a dip in numbers last year.
The relay has raised more than $131,000 with the final figure set to rise further
"Last year, we were a bit low, we had about 50 teams entered," communications and events assistant for Cancer Society Waikato Bay of Plenty, Sarah Fitzpatrick says.
For its 10th year anniversary, the event at AgResearch, Ruakura, had nearly double the number of participants of the previous year.
"But this year is our 10th anniversary, so a lot of people have said 'yep we are coming back for 10 years'."
This year, more than 91 teams registered, not including single participants.
"It's awesome, we are so thrilled. We had around 91 teams this year with 10 people in each team, and we had over 200 cancer survivors, which I think is the biggest number of survivors we have had registered," Fitzpatrick says.
Helen Painting, a cancer survivor, said she has been participating in the event for more than seven years. For three of them, she was on the relay organising committee.
She said, the highlights this year were the "survivors' walk and the amount of people who came in costume.
Hautapu Primary School also attended for its fourth consecutive year. Tristyn Gretton said four of the staff members suffered breast cancer, so they come to show their support.
They were third in the team fundraising this year.
"We raised $8000, which is $5000 more than last year," Gretton said.
A team of dedicated Relay for Life supporters fundraised an impressive $14,200 for the annual Cancer Society event in Hamilton last weekend. The team, Knacckered, won the Davison Shield for raising the most money.
The group of 14 work colleagues began fundraising soon after they completed the relay last year.
Team member Shirley Simpson said the group started doing the Relay for Life in 2007 after a colleague was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Knacckered has raised more than $30,000 toward cancer support since it began participating in the event.
