By Mary Owen
In March 2007, Peggy Wilson was diagnosed with cancer. Four months later, she walked as a survivor in her first Relay for Life.
“At that time, my cancer was gone,” said Wilson, who had undergone extensive chemo and radiation therapy. About a month later, the cancer cells started growing back, so she underwent several surgeries. This past February, she had her final reconstructive surgery.
Opening ceremony at 6 p.m. Friday, July 11
Regis High School track
The event will end at 4 p.m., Saturday July 12
For more information, visit
www.events.cancer.org/rflstaytonor
or contact [email protected]
“That involved removing some muscle tissue in each leg and filling in the leftover cavern in my anal area that had been removed from the surgeries. I was in the hospital this time for four weeks and then on to a skilled nursing facility for another three weeks and finally returned home in April.”
Getting cancer was a shock to Wilson, a 1974 graduate and salutatorian of Regis High School and an employee of the Stayton Cooperative Telephone Company since September 1974.
“I was an avid softball player, starting in Kansas and Nebraska when I was 8 years old and continuing on here in Oregon until age 49.”
Wilson was a member of two state championship teams and went to the regional playoffs in Salt Lake City.
“Being diagnosed with cancer was a huge shock to me because I have always been very healthy and active,” she said. “I will be continually healing and still have noticeable pain when I sit, but I am out and cancer-free this time. It has been a long haul, much more than I ever anticipated, but I’m glad to be alive.”
Both Wilson’s parents had their own bouts surviving cancer during their lifetimes, spurring her interest in participating in the Relay for Life even further.
“The excitement and the anticipation and the hope were so overwhelming for me that first year that I expressed to our company that it would be totally worthwhile for us to attend and become sponsors,” she said. “And hence we have been ever since.”
The SCTC team will be one of 32 expected to participate in the Stayton Relay for Life event that begins with a ceremony at 6 p.m. on Friday, July 11, at the Regis High School track. Survivors will make the first lap, followed by the caregivers’ lap and team lap, after the ceremony a barbecue will be offered to the public at a nominal charge.
The Celebration of Hope Ceremony will take place at 10 p.m. during which names of honorees will be shown on screen.
“The entire track will be lined, we hope, with luminaria, the only light for the walkers,” said Marilyn Kendall, an event organizer. “There will be an hour of silent reflection and a chance to walk quietly around and look at luminaria.”
The luminaria – lighted bags celebrating survivorship or commemorating lives lost to cancer – represent a person who has been profoundly affected by cancer and the family and friends who continue to be touched by that experience, according to the American Cancer Society.
Teams will be represented with a walker on the track throughout the 18-hour relay, with more than 200 survivors participating, said Marilyn Kendall, an organizer for the relay. Camping is available at the site. The event will end at 4 p.m., Saturday, July 12.
“Our goal is to raise more than $100,000 this year for cancer research, education, advocacy and patient services,” Kendall said of the funds raised for the American Cancer Society, a nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer.
“Each of us has been touched by cancer – a friend, a family member, a co-worker,” Kendall said. “This is a wonderful way to support and honor those who are fighting the battle, those who have won the fight, and to remember those who have lost the battle.”
Wilson’s advice to cancer victims is “to understand cancer is a horrible disease, but it can be beat!”
Having a support system of good friends and family members can help them through all that accompanies beating the disease, she said.
“During my incarceration period, my daughter gave birth to my first grandchild,” Wilson said. “That blessing was also unexpected, but it gave me the drive and hope I needed to pull myself up and move forward. It was God’s way of letting me know that I had reason to want to survive and not to give up.”
People standing behind her “110 percent” gave Wilson the strength to fight her battle. Stayton’s Relay for Life gives folks the opportunity to help other cancer victims, she said.
Individuals, businesses and groups can support the effort by becoming a sponsor, starting or joining a team, raising money, walking the relay or purchasing a luminaria for $5 in honor of someone in the battle or in memory of someone who lost the battle. Donations are always welcome as is committee assistance.
