Laps for life

For 18 hours, teams walk to raise thousands for cancer programs.

[Times photo: Steve Hasel] Nearly 250 cancer survivors, each wearing a red sash, open the fourth annual Citrus County Relay for Life on Friday.

By JORGE SANCHEZ

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 15, 2000

The money is donated to the local chapter of the American Cancer Society, which uses it for a variety of programs, including providing cancer patients with transportation to chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Relay for Life organizer Becky Vaughn has been with the event since its inception. Last year, the event raised $81,437.

"The generosity of the people in Citrus County is once again overwhelming," she said.

This year, 24 teams with as many as 20 members each walked continuously around the track at Lecanto High's football field. Each had their own way of coping with the effort.

Deputies from the Citrus County Sheriff's Office jogged around the track. When they weren't jogging, they cooked barbecue and donated the money to the Relay.

Many other team members walked, listening to music from the stage or from personal CD players and headphones.

Once again, the "Iron Man" of the Relay for Life was Jim Nichols. For the past three years, Nichols has been a one-man team. He walks non-stop for the entire 18 hours. This year, he tallied his laps and by the end of the event had walked 46.5 miles.

At the end, under a hot midday sun, Nichols appeared capable of walking another couple of hours. He credited a healthy daubing of petroleum jelly between his toes as an effective means of warding of the blisters that had plagued him in previous years.

"I don't want to sit down," he said to people who kept insisting he do so. "That's when the legs start to stiffen up."

The Relay for Life began Friday at 6 p.m. with opening ceremonies that included the Victory Lap for cancer survivors. About 300 people took the Victory Lap.

There were all types, from Jacqueline Dixon, 7, of Crystal River to Jack Walker, 82, and his wife, Ruth Walker, 79.

Dixon was diagnosed with cancer when she was only 2 years old. She participated in the opening ceremony by leading the crowd in the pledge of allegiance.

The Walkers of Boynton Beach were brought to the Relay by their son, Inverness cardiologist Dr. Dennis Walker. Jack Walker has survived colorectal cancer since 1973 and Ruth Walker underwent lung cancer surgery in February.

"It came out of nowhere," Dr. Walker said. "She hadn't smoked in 20 years."

From his perspective as a cardiologist and a son of parents with cancer, Dr. Walker compared heart disease and cancer. "Cancer is a lot harder than heart disease. When you have heart disease, you actually feel sick. With cancer, it sort of quietly invades your body and you really don't know where it's coming from," he said. "Also, the surgery for cancer is a lot tougher."

The Relay teams were honored at the end of the event Saturday for their efforts.

Raising the most money was the team from the Robert Boissoneault Oncology Institute of Citrus County. The team raised $15,429.

"They started about two weeks after last year's Relay ended," Vaughn said.

The team from Citrus Memorial Hospital raised $10,052.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.