difference

Tonight is the big night. The culmination of a year's worth of work by many Pike Countians, the Relay for Life event promises to be an enjoyable night.

Racing for a Cure, the event's local theme so named by the honorary chairman Larry Hicks, a cancer survivor, embodies everything that's important about what the American Cancer Society does.

The organization truly races for a cure to cancer.

The Cancer Society is the nation's leading voluntary health organization. Here are a few points to consider in supporting Relay:

Cancer will impact one-in-four people during their lifetime and is the nation's leading health concern (Gallup Survey, 2000).

In Alabama alone, the Cancer Society is funding $1.6 million in research grants and the nationwide investment in cancer research stands at $120 million.

In Birmingham's Joe Lee Griffin Hope Lodge, hundreds of Alabama cancer patients spent more than 10,000 occupied room nights during its very first year, saving those patients and their caregivers some $750,000 in lodging expenses alone.

Sixty percent of all cancer patients are now surviving this dreaded disease.

Support the Relay. The money raised in the process truly does go a long way.