Otero County Relay for Life raises $60,000

ALAMOGORDO — Residents celebrated Otero County Relay for Life on Saturday and raised an estimated $60,000 for cancer research. 

Hosted at the Otero County Fairgrounds pavilion, participants, cancer survivors and cancer patients circled a track until 10 p.m. to celebrate victories and remember those who lost their battle with cancer.

While the event serves as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Foundation, it also doubles as an inspirational space for those impacted by cancer.

"Every type of cancer you can be diagnosed with, when you hear the words 'You have cancer,' you immediately think I'm going to die," said Organizator Brian McRory. "It's just the way it is and the way it was, survivors were few and far between when cancer really reared its ugly head and we first realized what it was. With leaps and bounds in medicine, people are surviving more and more every day."

McRory, a skin cancer survivor, said one of his favorite parts of Relay for Life is seeing the survivors and those battling cancer coming together. 

"There's people on the track that have been recently diagnosed with cancer and they're following the survivors around the track – it's inspiring for them because they know they can survive," McRory said. "It's also a motivational thing for the survivors themselves because survivorship is tough. When you know you have to fight the biggest fight of your life and then you win, you wonder how long that's going to last. Even skin cancer survivors, when they go out in the sun and put their SPF 100 on and they feel like their skin is burning off every time they're getting touched by the sun because they know it could just be time before more skin cancer comes to the surface." 

McRory said the community aspect of Relay for Life is so important, maybe even more important than the money they raise. That was highlighted during the Survivor's Meal just before the Relay for Life opening ceremony, as many local survivors got together to share lunch and their stories.

"The first time I had cancer, I was 21 years old and I had a tumor on my thyroid," said Carla Kerr. "The doctor took it out and the cancer was within the tumor so I didn't have to have any chemo or anything like that. The next time I was in my 40s and had female cancer, that one nearly got me. There was a lot of radiation, which I'm paying for now, but I survived it. I always say God is not done with me yet." 

Kerr went on to develop malignant tumors in her tongue after having teeth implants, a procedure which involved a lot of bone grafts and X-rays. Kerr now volunteers at the Alamogordo Cancer Resource Center. 

Richard McElderry, survivor of prostate cancer, said the most important part of Relay for Life is the awareness it brings to different types of cancer. 

"My father died of colon cancer at the age of 68 so that was the cancer I was really prepared for," McElderry said. "I've been having colonoscopies regularly since I was 55. When they diagnosed me with prostate cancer and I said 'No, it's supposed to be colon cancer.'"

McElderry received his treatment from the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. McElderry said he didn't have surgery or radiation, but elected for radioactive seeds to be implanted. McElderry has been cancer free for five years and in December was released by his doctors.