Northpinellas: Relay for Life walks scheduled

The event to raise money and awareness for cancer begins locally this weekend in St. Petersburg. Relay for Life races follow in Dunedin May 3-4 and in Clearwater, Seminole and Tarpon Spring May 10-11. Events in Largo, Oldsmar and Pinellas Park follow.

Bossa, 49, has survived breast cancer twice. Corning watched both of her parents die of cancer.

"I'm an American Cancer Society volunteer (yearlong) because I'd like to see a cure for my two daughters down the road," said Bossa of Seminole, an organizer of that city's relay.

"We do it mainly because of our children and future grandchildren," said fellow organizer Corning, 39, also of Seminole. She has two daughters and a son.

Bossa was only 35 when she had to have a lumpectomy. Because the cancer was found in the lymph nodes, she also had to have six months of chemotherapy and seven weeks of radiation.

"I lost my hair, lost weight and everything," said Bossa, who works in the prekindergarten early intervention program at Southern Oak Elementary School in Largo.

Bossa's cancer came back four years later and she had to have a mastectomy.

Eileen Corning remembers the suffering of her parents.

"My mom lost her battle with breast cancer about 13 years ago," Corning said. "And my dad had throat cancer when I was a little girl. He died of complications about 10 years ago.

"I do this (also yearlong) because funds are needed to help with research and finding the cure," she said.

Corning, Bossa and a committee of eight others have been working on the Seminole relay since September.

"We have upped our goal to almost $50,000," said Corning, who works as the director of volunteer services and support services at Sun Coast Hospital in Largo.

The overall goal for the Pinellas Unit of the American Cancer Society, based in Pinellas Park, is $410,000.

The relay events unofficially begin with the setting up of a "tent city" at the race site on a Friday afternoon. Teams bring in their pledges and sometimes sell things at the event, decorate their campsites, play games and walk around the track.

Cancer survivors generally walk the first lap themselves about 6 p.m. Later in the evening luminarias are lit around the track to honor cancer survivors and remember those who have lost their battles with cancer. The luminarias remain lit throughout the night.

Teams of 10 to 15 people take turns walking around the track until about noon on the Saturday.

The idea for Relay for Life was born in 1985 when Dr. Gordon Platt took the fight against cancer to a high school track in Tacoma, Wash. Spectators came out to watch and some even spent the night.

Now, Relay for Life events are held in more than 3,000 communities nationwide. In 2001, they raised more than $200-million.

-- Information from Times files used in this report.