I started participating in Relay for Life in 2010 after I lost my best friend, Katie, to Ewing's Sarcoma at the very young age of 18. She was the biggest sweatheart and everyone loved her and her infectious personality. From her diagnosis in December of 2008 to when she received her angel wings in March of 2010, I watched her maintain her positivity and bubbly personality and fight every day to beat this terrible disease. She was able to graduate high school despite going through aggressive cancer treatments and she had her whole life ahead of her with dreams of being a special education teacher, which she would've been amazing at, but cancer took that from her. She never gave up and I knew that I had to take her strength and continue to fight for a cure in her memory so that no one else would be robbed of their future by this terrible disease.

In 2017, I added another reason to my list of reasons to Relay. In January of 2017, my grandmother went to the doctor for some back pain. Her doctor conduted some tests and did an MRI and we were shocked by the results. What we expected to be normal pain due to her age turned out to be cancer that had already metastasized and spread from her lungs to her spine and brain. She immediately started radiation, but within a few weeks she had to be hospitalized when she was found unconscious and we learned that her body was unable to function properly on it's own. She was kept sedated much of the time, but she would wake up and have moments of clarity and I cherish those moments with her. After two weeks in the hospital, she was transferred to a nursing home for palative care where she continued to deteriorate. It was the one of the hardest times of my life to watch this woman who had been so full of love and life deteriorate so quickly. Just two months after her diagnosis, she passed and received her angel wings.

Katie and my grandmother are now my guardian angels and I will continue to fight for a cure until no one has to suffer the way that they have and no one has to watch their family member or friend go through this. They fought hard and lost their battle, but I will continue to fight and I will WIN!