Prince Albert Relay for Life is

On Friday May 29th I took part in the Relay for Life at the Harry Jerome Track in Prince Albert. This is an annual event where teams come together and walk around the track all night each member taking a turn or several members of the team on the track at a time. This all done to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society.

Marjorie from our church felt I should take part so I signed up with Helen, Marjorie and Julie (Julie was unable to join us). There are many different coloured t-shirts handed out, the survivors of Cancer are yellow. Team members are white or they dress up in various constumes, committee members are orange, volunteers are blue.


Here we are waiting for the event to begin. Although the sun was shining the wind had picked up and was very cold. I was determined to have fun so I wore my fancy leg cover. It is supposed to be green lightening Richard says it looks like mold. I also had on a lime green t-shirt but had subsequently covered that with my sweater then the survivors t-shirt.



After much standing around while the various committee members and dignitaries gave their speeches, this was hard on me as I find it harder to stand still than I do to actually walk. We had various groups represented as our escort around the track. The RCMP Officers in their Red Serge. City Police, Firemen, Sea and Air Cadets and several other groups that I now forget. Two survivors carried a white banner on which each survivor taking part had outlined their hand with their name and how long they had been cancer free written in the middle. I have now been cancer free for 8 years.


Here we are doing our victory lap. As you can see I used my hiking poles to help keep me balanced I also find they allow me to have more stamina to take part in such activities where I need to do a lot of walking (for instance shopping).

The next set of photos show some of the teams that took part in the actual relay. One or more members of the teams would be walking all night. As the sun was going down it was getting colder. I had already finished my lap and was sitting down with Marjorie's extra jacket on and a blanket around my legs. It was hard to take pictures from this location so I finally went closer to the track to take these of the teams.


The name of this team is the Saskatchewan Penitentiary.
This team had several youngsters and they all wore top hats and tails and carried canes they looked so cute.
This picture really doesn't do the Legal Eagles justice! They wore black gowns with their white wigs and bird beak on the forehead.


These are only a few of the 80+ teams that participated. Once everyone had circled the track once the official relay began. We went off to the Survivor's tent to have a bite to eat and a hot drink to warm up. Once we left the tent we did another lap of the track.

During the evening and night there would be entertainment. While we were still there they were shaving heads of those who had raised money for this event. One girl had raised $11,055 to have her hair cut off. Even though it was getting to be very cold I was glad I was there to witness this event. There were 200+ survivors signed up for the victory lap but many did not show probably due to the weather.

I decided I would like to walk the track again, this time to find my luminary.


This is my bag. They have a special coating on the bags so they do not burn, then holes in the sides, sand is placed in the bag and a candle. At 10:30 pm they would light all the candles. The bags lining the track were either for those who are survivors or in memory of those who have lost their battle with cancer. Marjorie told me she wrote 800 of the bags, she did this one for me and wrote the inscription on the bottom.

As we walked around the track we looked for her mother's and husband's who had both lost the battle and her's. We also looked for a few other luminaries of other family members of her friends or church people.
Hear I am standing behind my luminary.

At 10:30 the Luminary Ceremony began. The Prince Albert Highland Pipe Band played Amazing Grace while the candles were all lite. Then there was a minute of silence while we remembered all those who had lost the fight. After that Megan Fournier sang Ava Maria. I was not able to get a picture of the sign once it was lite up but you can imagine how moving it was, not only to see these all glowing but also all the bags around the track. They would be left burning all night.

By the time we left for home, around 11:00 pm, I had actually walked the track three times, not all at once, but at various times in the few hours we were there. I've had trouble getting back to walking any distance this year so I am proud of my accomplishments during this activity.