Fund-Raising Relay Organizer Finds Cancer Survivors Full Of Life

Leann Dunning keeps her composure when she tells about her mother’s fight with cancer. And her mother-in-law’s.

She is upbeat when she describes the fun and emotion at Relay for Life, an overnight cancer fund-raiser scheduled next weekend.

“When you get 2,000 people in one area who all have that passion to fight cancer, it’s pretty amazing,” she said.

But when she tells about a young woman at Valley Hospital and Medical Center who struggled with ovarian cancer, then she slips.

“Here I go,” she said, reaching for a tissue.

Dunning’s mother-in-law is a 10-year survivor of breast cancer. Her mother, a five-year survivor.

But cancer killed that 30-year-old woman Dunning remembers from her early years. “To see her with her young husband … We basically watched her die.” Another patient, a man in his 40s, came in with nothing more than back pain. His cancer was advanced.

Dunning also knows the fear that stays with cancer survivors. Is that a lump? “You basically live with fear the rest of your life.”

She has watched, amazed, as her mother-in-law, Pat Dunning, changed much of her life in order to stay cancer-free.

“I’ve asked her, ‘How do you do that?’ And she said, ‘Basically, you have to be scared to death.”’ Dunning now works as a nurse just one or two days a week - her volunteer work now overshadows her nursing. She has been involved with the overnight Relay for Life for about 10 years. Because she’s a runner, too, the event is a natural for her. First, she simply ran - or walked - on the relay team.

Then she became a team captain for Valley Hospital’s entry.

Now, she’s one of three co-chairs of the entire event, which will be held Friday and Saturday at Spokane Falls Community College.

The core of the event is the relay itself, with participants walking and running. Many participants are cancer patients or cancer survivors.

An evening ceremony, with candles placed around the track, is the most moving part of the event, Dunning said. There are also booths and games, especially geared toward youngsters.

Dunning’s two daughters, Katelyn and Rheya, will add their two cents, running their own craft booth where children can make beaded geckos. All the money they raise will go to the American Cancer Society.

And, of course, Dunning is running. Dunning said the Valley Hospital team for the relay will include about 20 people, from engineers to nurses, administrators and at least one doctor.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, how much money you have, how healthy your lifestyle is, you can get cancer,” she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo