2024 Relay For Life at Virginia Tech

Good afternoon, D. I have a quick story to tell you about how cancer can impact your life with B. Our ultimate goal for really for life is to raise as much money as you can for the American Cancer Society. My freshman year here at Tech, I was diagnosed during finals week. I was diagnosed with stage three Hodgkin lymphoma. I had to go home right away, have treatment. I had a great support system throughout my journey, and not everybody can say the same when they're diagnosed with cancer. Our fund raising efforts go to things like hopedges that house families for treatment. I got involved with RL for life when I came back to school after I was healthy. I joined the Survivor Caregiver committee. And here we are three years later. I went from being a committee member on the Survivor Caregiver committee to becoming the executive for that position, and this is my second year doing that. My mom was diagnosed with, I believe stage three breast cancer when I was in the second grade. For the next two years, she went through chemotherapy. 2.5 years later, she unfortunately lost her battle to cancer. Re life for life was huge in my town, which is how I got into it, and it really just got me hooked and I haven't lesson. When I was in sixth grade, my dad gave the Luminari speech at the RL for life in my town. Six, seventh and eighth grade. I really just attended that Luminara ceremony. When I was in ninth grade, I joined RL as a general participant. Like, I joined a team with my friends, my sophomore year of high school. I joined the committee for it. My junior year, I became a co chair, and then my senior year, I led the event for my high schools Relay. When I came to Virginia Tech, I joined Committee right away. I got on executive this year for the fund raising committee. So I guess around eight, ten years I've been doing relay. I would say this year's goal. I really just want to remain number one because we've been number one collegiate real life for the past like 14 or 15 years. But as a more general goal, I really just want to make sure everyone's having fun at the event.