Relay Event Allows Community to Fight Cancer

The annual Relay for Life in Diamond Bar is more than just a fundraiser to Kathleen Romero-Broad, the event’s online chair.

It’s a chance to honor her father, who died from prostate cancer in December 2008. But more importantly, Relay for Life is a community event. There are very few people today who have not been touched by cancer.

“It is truly a community event,” she said. “And that’s what we’re really trying to do, get this out to the community so they understand it is a community event.”

The event honors the families, friends, survivors and those long gone, she said. There are as many smiles as there are tears at the events. But the one thing participants try to spread the most is hope.

More than 300 people are expected at this year’s Relay for Life, which is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. at , 501 Diamond Bar Blvd. The event will close at 9 a.m. Sunday.

This is the Diamond Bar Relay’s seventh year. As they have every year, participants will set up tents. Some teams will hold raffles. Members of the community, like musicians and a local martial arts studio, will perform throughout the event.

Each event has a survivors’ lap, a luminaria held after dark in which candles are lit inside bags filled with sand. Each one bears the name of a person touched by cancer. There are also Fight Back Ceremonies, where people make personal commitments to save lives by taking up the fight against cancer.

Everyone is welcome to join the event, Romero-Broad said.

Do you have a story of survival? Or do you want to honor a loved one? Let us know in the comments. Or email a letter with a photo of the loved one you want to honor.