I know it must be hard for all of you. Cancer is a horrible thing. It drains the life right out of you. I have had a very personal experience with it. Like it says on my personal page I lost my great-grandmother to cancer. Yes, she lived through it for a long time and she kept fighting until the end but she wasn't the same. She was losing her mind as she got more and more sick from the cancer. She hurt when she moved and at one point before she passed away she couldn't move or talk at all. It hurt her when anybody touched her or moved her. Sometimes I think it hurt her to breathe. I loved my great-grandmother and even though she has passed she still lives inside of me. Her love has been and hopefully always will be a part of my life because without her it wouldn't have ever been the same. She was an amazing woman and raised eight children. My mother is buying a luminary for both her and my great-grandfather. He passed when I was probably about a year. He too died from cancer. I didn't know him at all so this didn't have much affect on me. Another person I lost due to cancer was a very close friend of the family. His name was Kenneth Witham and he was so close that I grew up referring to him as my uncle. Him and my great-grandmother lived right down the road from each other. Ken built motorized boats and drove them on the lake. They were amazing little things. The last person that meant a lot to me that died from having cancer is my uncle. His name was Bill. I loved going to his house and spending time with him because we always had a lot of fun. These people meant the world to me and losing them completely changed the person I was before. It opened my eyes to the fact that whether we like it or not we lose ones we love but there are ways that you can stop it. So I'm going to try and help all of you. I'll work my butt off to earn as much money as humanly possible even after this relay. I may not know all of you but I'm happy that you guys are around because it keeps my memory of my great-grandmother in my head. It makes me remember that I can help so many other people by just earning a little extra money and donating. Good luck to all of you. I hope you make it through because the ones that love you, especially young children, need you in their lives, because when they lose you....it changes their whole outlook on life, love, and happiness.