Youth cancer survivors to lead Augusta Relay for Life events

Laura Enoch was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in the summer.

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Since then, the 17-year-old Lakeside High School senior has undergone a biopsy, surgery and radiation to eradicate her cancer.

"I think I am done," said Enoch, of Martinez, of her cancer treatment. "I had one dose of radiation. I spent a day in isolation. That was pretty much it."

With Enoch's treatment going well, she'll continue to bring hope to the fight against cancer on May 11 as an honorary chairwoman of the 14th annual Augusta Relay for Life.

"They will lead the Survivors' Lap," said Kathleen Trigg, public relations chairwoman for the American Cancer Society Augusta office, of the youth cancer survivors who will serve as honorary chairmen.

The cancer society is asking all volunteers or anyone interested in participating in the relay to attend the kick-off rally at 6 p.m. Thursday at Warren Baptist Church.

"Right now, we're just trying to find interested people, people who have participated in the past, and anyone else," Trigg said, adding that those who are looking for a Relay for Life team to join or volunteers to help plan and run the overnight event are asked to attend.

Any youth cancer survivors are also invited to attend the rally and Relay for Life set for May 11 at the Family Y on Wheeler Road.

Last year's relay included more than 3,000 participants and 440 cancer survivors and raised $337,515 for cancer research.

Trigg said the theme of this year's event is "Sleepless in Augusta'' because cancer never sleeps and neither do those who fight it.

"We are trying to regain the focus on why it is an overnight event," Trigg said. "People who are fighting cancer are fighting it 24 hours a day."

Enoch's treatments were mild compared to those fighting other, more aggressive types of cancer. Her cancer was caught early because her mother noticed her enlarged thyroid gland.

"It is tiring," Enoch said. "Just having to deal with it all."

But those without cancer also will have an opportunity at the relay to assist the fight by signing up for the third national Cancer Prevention Study.

Trigg said only six communities in Georgia have been chosen to participate.

Participants in the study should be between the ages of 30 and 65 and have never been diagnosed with cancer. The study will follow the anticipated 500,000 study participants for 20 to 30 years and will focus on the lifestyle, genetic and environmental contributors to cancer.

"(In the Southeast), we have a high cancer rate in general and the information gathered from Augusta can be highly valuable," Trigg said, adding that one of the American Cancer Society's national studies connected lung cancer with smoking.

For more information on the kickoff rally, the Relay for Life or the Cancer Prevention Study, call the Augusta cancer society at (706) 731-9900.