At last nights 11th Annual Relay for Life in Longmont, 700 participants were on hand under a clear blue sky to hear out-going chair Vicki Santos retelling how she explains to someone when they ask why the event is an all night one.She tells them"we don't sleep, because cancer doesn't sleep." Both she and her husband, co-chair and Longmont City Councilman Gabe were heartfelt and at times tearful in telling their own personal stories and many who listened understood.

It wasn't just an "event" or just a fundraiser. It was so much more than that. In attendance was a woman who found a long long friend, thankful that her friend was wearing a purple "Survivor" shirt, but shedding tears of remorse that she had not taken the time in her own daily life to reach out to her friend after hearing of her cancer diagnosis.

Many were wearing the purple "Hope" bracelets in honor of those they knew with cancer. One woman was wearing two bracelets, one to represent her side of the family and one to represent her husband's side of the family. She said that had she worn one for each person they knew affected by cancer, her arms would have been full of purple bracelets.

The Hope Cancer Center team from Longmont United Hospital had letters for each of their relay walkers to wear in a fun Scrabble theme to "Spell out a cure". There also was a team of young girls, mostly barefoot or in flip-flops walking the relay path in honor of their teenager friend who was battling cancer. There were many repeat walkers at this event, one named Amber, is an inspiring13 year old girl who over the years has made news in her quest to help raise money for the relay organization and is now on the Relay Committee. There were luminaries along the path of walkers, each decorated and lit in a later nighttime ceremony to honor someone affected by cancer.Stories that arevery personalized.

Cancer strikes 1 out of 3 people, and as someone once wrote "There are four people in our family. Statistically speaking, there are overwhelmingly good odds one of the 4 of us will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in our lives....THAT SCARES THE HELL OUT OF ME."

The 11th Annual Cancer Relay of Life in Longmont last year was recognized as the top relay in the Denver region, having raised 129k and looks to raise 150k this year. Gabe Santos relayed this message to the crowd, "We can send a man to the moon, why can't we find a cure for cancer?"

With the money and time and energy spent on relays like that in Longmont...with each step, that too can happen.