Survivors at Relay.

(**Registration form at bottom of page**)

Survivors are our special guests. Many of our planning committee members have had cancer. Everyone is a survivor, but those who have faced a challenge like cancer are more aware of how true that is. We consider a survivor anyone who has ever been diagnosed with any type of cancer and is still walking this earth.

Our special survivors celebration begins with registration at the East Chapel Hill High School field at 5:30 pm to 6:00 pm. During that time, there will be music, refreshments, socializing and special gifts provided. This year is very special because we have compiled a CD of songs from the past 5 years of Relay For Life Survivors Ceremonies (plus a couple of other appropriate songs) and each survivor will receive one. (click here to see the CD).

An American Cancer Society funded researcher and a cancer survivor will share the honors as guest speakers.

Denis Guttridge, a local cancer researcher, who has supported Relay actively over the last two years, will tell why he does what he does. Denis is moving on to bigger and better things at Ohio State this summer and we'll be sad to see him go.

Norris Brock Johnson is Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina -- Chapel Hill, where he has taught since 1977. His published writings include academic works on the temple gardens of Japan, and personal reflections on his own journey. In "A Song of Secret Places," he writes: "I would like to sing you a song. A song from my childhood, a Song of my Innocence as William Blake would term it. A song of something thought lost, through Grace, rediscovered as what Blake would term my Song of Experience."

Then, we will all walk the first lap around the track at 6:30 pm and then have our loved ones and supporters join us for the second lap.

Also new this year will be a special, Survivor's-Only drawing for a prize donated by the Carolina Inn - A night's stay at the hotel, complete with dinner and two free tickets to a Playmaker's Repertory Company production at the Paul Green theatre. There are many benefits to winning the battle with cancer, but we want survival to taste a little better, feel a little more comfortable, sound more pleasant and entertain just a little more. Please join us and register today (or just come out and support us, if you'd rather remain anonymous. We understand that, too).