Hundreds of students, alumni and faculty will gather on the morning of April 18 at UC San Diego’s North Track, set up camp on the grass and spend the next 24 hours walking for a cure as they celebrate, remember and fight back against cancer as part of UC San Diego’s Relay for Life.

Relay for Life is a 24-hour fundraising event sponsored by the American Cancer Society (ACS). This year will mark Relay for Life’s 25th anniversary and its fifth year at the university. UC San Diego’s Relay for Life is completely student run with the assistance of an ACS staff partner. A committee of approximately 30 UC San Diego students meets weekly to plan the entertainment, ceremonies, logistics and every other detail of Relay for Life. The event is sponsored by Colleges Against Cancer (CAC), the collegiate division of ACS.

CAC at UC San Diego was founded by Minh Nguyen, ’06 in 2004. Nguyen was diagnosed with leukemia at 16, and was the recipient of the ACS Young Scholarship Program for all four years of college. The scholarship is awarded to cancer survivors to aid them with their college education since the financial burden of cancer treatment is so vast. As part of the scholarship, the recipient is required to annually complete 25 hours of community service through ACS.

During her first year as an ACS Youth Scholarship recipient, Nguyen volunteered at the ACS office in San Diego. During her time there, one of the youth directors suggested that Nguyen start a CAC chapter at UC San Diego to fulfill her volunteer hours. With the help of her roommates and friends, Nguyen founded UC San Diego’s College Against Cancer program. In the spring of 2005, the club sponsored UC San Diego’s first Relay for Life. The club set a goal of hosting 200 participants and raising $10,000. When Nguyen found out that the number of registered participants had reached 400, she was stunned.

“We raised more than twice the amount we had set as our goal,” said Nguyen. “Many students were excited to celebrate life and their family members’ battles against cancer. It was truly symbolic of how much students care and how much of a difference we can make.”

Every year, Relay for Life at UC San Diego has increased its total donations by at least $10,000. In 2008, 80 teams raised more than $75,000 for cancer research, education and ACS patient programs.  This year, CAC has set an impressive goal of 100 teams and $90,000. Jaime Spray, ’09, current president of CAC, hopes that this year’s event will bring the entire UC San Diego community together to fight cancer.

“Relay for Life is not just for students,” she says. “We want to bring students, alumni and faculty together because this is something affects all of us.”

The American Cancer Society has many ties to UC San Diego. The Moores UCSD Cancer Center frequently receives wigs from ACS — purchased with funds raised from Relay for Life — to give to patients undergoing chemotherapy. Additionally, Bethany Buck-Koehntop, Ph.D., David Hawkins, Ph.D., and Rebecca Green, Ph.D., are three UC San Diego researchers that are sponsored by ACS funds.

While supporting research and programs to defeat cancer is a main element of Relay for Life, it is not the only goal of the event. Relay for Life’s motto, “Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back,” offers a message of support and hope to those who participate.

“Relay for Life is about celebrating survivors,” explains Lorraine Leynes, ’09, Relay for Life co-chair. “We come to show our support for those who have won their battle, to remember those we have lost to this disease, and to pledge to do whatever we can to fight back against cancer.”

Although Ngyuen graduated from UC San Diego three years ago, she has come back to participate in Relay for Life to celebrate her eight years of remission from leukemia. This year, however, calls for extra celebration. In the summer of 2008, Nguyen was diagnosed with another type of cancer, unrelated to her leukemia diagnosis in high school, and successfully completed treatment at the beginning of the year. 

“It reminded me that cancer doesn’t pick and choose its victims. I won’t ever give up or give in to cancer, and that’s what Relay for Life is all about; the 24 hours represents a cancer patient’s fight.”

For more information about UC San Diego’s Relay for Life, visit http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=13620.