Relay For Life Money Distribution

Money funds cancer research and programs to assist cancer patients

CENTRAL OREGONIAN FILE PHOTO - Cancer survivors Rita Amodeo, left, and Lauren Olander, center, lead others on the first lap of the 2015 Crook County Relay for Life at the Crook County Fairgrounds. The event is one of five Central Oregon Relay for Life fundraisers for the American Cancer Society. ACS provides services for cancer patients, survivors and caregivers and funds cancer research.

Many people who are familiar with Relay for Life are aware of the event but not so much of how it benefits cancer patients, research and prevention.

"The way American Cancer Society works, we do not have a local bank account here — all of the money goes to American Cancer Society," explained Lauren Olander, the senior community manager for Relay for Life. "But, every single piece of work American Cancer Society does touches your local residents on a daily basis."

The funds go toward several main areas.

First, the money supports cancer research.

In Oregon, Relay for Life funds $4 million a year in cancer research.

"If we took all of our Relay for Life events in the entire state, we would not come close to raising $4 million," so in theory, Olander noted, all of the money raised here stays here.

"Not only are our dollars funding Oregon researchers, other states' dollars are coming into Oregon because we're so blessed between OHSU and Providence to have so many researchers that we're funding right now," Olander said.

Dollars raised by local Relay for Life events fund local programs and services, as well provide local residents two cancer resource centers in Central Oregon.

One center operates inside St. Charles in Bend, and the second is inside the St. Charles Cancer Center in Redmond.

Volunteers staff the cancer resource centers, and those volunteers are available to provide information or support that cancer patients and their families need from American Cancer Society.

For example, Olander said, if someone in Crook County needs to travel to Portland or OHSU for cancer care or treatment and they are traveling outside of their home area, a lodging program through American Cancer Society can provide free or discounted hotel rooms.

"That's a huge resource we provide for people in rural areas that have to travel," Olander said.

The Look Good Feel Better program is another local program here in Central Oregon which is funded by local income development opportunities in Central Oregon.

Through a partnership with Pantene, women have access to new wigs, learn to tie scarves, and use hats to make them feel better about their appearance.

Look Good Feel Better also partners with a variety of cosmetic companies that donate hundreds of dollars' worth of product to women.

"There's a class about things you wouldn't normally think of," Olander said. "Like when you go through chemotherapy and your eyebrows fall out. Well, as a woman, how do you draw on your eyebrows if you don't know where they used to be because they're not there by the time you think about it?"

The classes also teach skin care because, Olander said, patients' skin is going to be very different while going through chemo and radiation.

Relay for Life also funds support the Road to Recovery program.

If people even need to go to Redmond or Bend for treatment, and they don't have somebody available to drive them, or they don't have gas money to get there, or they do have the gas money and they do have a car but they're just not feeling well that day and don't want to drive themselves, the program can arrange for volunteer drivers to partner with them.

"If we didn't have Relay for Life events here, we wouldn't have those programs available," Olander said.

In addition to funding cancer research in the state and supporting local programs and services, Relay for Life events help support the American Cancer Society in its other work, such as advocacy work.

When women have a mammogram and their insurance company is required to pay for it, that's because of the advocacy work American Cancer Society does in the legislature.

"The legislature now understands mammograms are so critical for early detection," Olander pointed out. "Even though you don't think about it when you go get your mammogram, your insurance company can't deny it — they have to cover the cost of it. That's American Cancer Society. So every women in Crook County who's ever had a mammogram has been affected by American Cancer Society."

The same is true of colonoscopies.

Lastly, but not least, American Cancer Society is always helping educate communities about early detection and prevention.

"We know how critical sunscreen is. That's due to the work and the education and the research American Cancer Society does," Olander said. "All of those different pieces that we now know about cancer prevention are all connected together."