Community to Rally for Cancer Survivors, Victims at Relay for Life

"Suck it up, princess."

Those maybe aren't the first words most people would think after learning they have breast cancer.

But it was Valentine's Day this past February, and after hanging up the phone, Lynn Carlson had to go back into her daughter's classroom and finish helping at the class's Valentine's Day party. She took a breath, held back tears and went back in for the last 15 minutes.

Then, "I left and I got in my car and that’s when the tears came," she said.

But Carlson, 45, really didn't spend much time wallowing after she learned her diagnosis. She decided she didn't want to focus on the cancer—she wanted to focus on getting better.

While she didn't have to go through chemotherapy, and while she never looked very sick, Carlson did elect to have a bilateral mastectomy to thwart the cancer's return. Her diagnosis was initially a shocking and scary thing, especially for her 16-year-old and 9-year-old children, she said.

Carlson, who works at AVR, Inc., in Apple Valley, will have her final reconstructive surgery in September. This weekend, she'll participate in the American Cancer Society's signature fundraiser—Relay for Life—in Apple Valley, on team Tumor Raiders with her friends, family and coworkers, some of whom also are cancer survivors.

While she's always been a strong person, her experience with cancer has helped her learn to let others help take care of her, and more about the ACS's role in that.

"I think it’s good to get the organization’s name out there," Carlson said. "A lot of people don’t know where to turn to when they are diagnosed.”

Apple Valley Relay 2012

Organizers, who begin working on each Relay event during the previous autumn, hope that between 150 and 200 people will attend this year's Apple Valley event, similar to other years, event Chairperson Adam Johnson said.

Many of the well known parts of the annual event, like the luminaria ceremony to honor those who have or had cancer, a survivor dinner and survivor lap, are on this year's schedule again. And the main goal behind it is always to raise money for American Cancer Society research—this year's goal in Apple Valley is $35,000.

But one important thing has changed this year—the location.

The event has moved from , to . Bringing in direct city involvement by having the Relay at a public park "should really help with making it more of a community event," Johnson said.

Relay for Life events, of which many are held each year across the country, has stayed relevant because of the local-level organizing and local community involvement, Johnson said.

"It feels like a very small nonprofit that everyone can relate to,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he hasn't had to go through a situation where a close friend or family member was battling cancer, which is partially why Relay and the American Cancer Society's efforts to find new treatments and cures are meaningful to him.

"Maybe I won't have to have that connection," Johnson said.

Getting the stories out there

Carlson said it was somewhat surreal to have people clapping for her as she walked with Relay in the Apple Valley Freedom Days parade this year, and that she'll have a luminary at this year's Relay.

"This year, I think it will be very cathartic for me," Carlson said. 

But she'll be thinking of many others, too—her father, who passed away after battling melanoma, others who have passed and also other survivors.

She'll also include her kids in the event to help them see how they can make a difference.

"If [kids] can see people who’ve survived cancer, the word isn’t so scary anymore," she said.

Carlson said that as she completes her recovery, she'd like to get more involved with American Cancer Society efforts; some of the information and tests that helped Carlson are newer, and made her journey easier than it would have been even five years ago.

But ACS's initiatives include more than just fundraising. Since her diagnosis, Carlson has been able to find strength through others and their stories; in part because of this, she's interested in the ACS survivor mentor program, where survivors are available to talk with others who are diagnosed.

“You just want to pass that on,” Carlson said. "The key I think is to get the stories out there" so people don’t have to go through their journeys alone.

A full list of this year's Relay events is attached. See 's photos from last year's Relay for Life .

Carlson also has a CaringBridge website.