Bellevue Relay for Life Driven by Families Touched by Cancer

At the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, you can find a broad cross section of people—children, professional adults, the elderly. They are all brought together by a disease that is as common as it is frightening, and all have been touched by its presence in our daily lives.

The co-chairs of the Bellevue Relay for Life can attest to that. Theresa Arasim and Darcy Burns-Jelcz have taken their personal experiences with cancer and used them as personal motivation to help others facing the disease.

At 39, Arasim was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had found a lump, which led her to have a mammogram. Ironically, the lump itself turned out to be a benign cycst, but her exam turned up cancer and she underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy to battle it.

“The worst was the chemo,” Arasim says. She says people are typically aware that chemo patients lose their hair, but no one thinks about the fact that they lose all their hair, including eyelashes, eyebrows and body hair.

It was a dark time in her life, Arasim says, and an example of how important the programs offered by the American Cancer Society can be for people going through such times.

Arasim got a free makeover and tips for feeling more like herself.

“I had never used an eyebrow pencil before,” she says.

Other patients receive social worker assistance, transportation to doctors visits, or free lodging for patients who must travel from out of the area for their care through programs at the American Cancer Society.

And the Relay for Life, in which teams made up of eight to 15 people take turns walking around a track for 18 hours, give patients a goal and survivors and their supporters a way to take positive action and give something back, Arasim says.

“I was inspired to participate by my experience,” she says. Now cancer-free, Arasim will be one of the many survivors on hand to kick off the event with the survivor lap this June 4 at . Her family will be there, too; last year Arasim’s 16-year-old daughter, Lauren, walked 22 miles, making up the overnight leg of the 18-hour event for their team, the Red Hot Chili Steppers. Her husband Dave’s band, Jump the Fire, provided entertainment to encourage participants.

Burns-Jelcz, the other co-chair, and her husband, Michael Jelcz, will be there, too, in homage to the memory of their son, James, who died from a rare bone-tissue cancer called Ewings Sarcoma at age 19. Burns-Jelcz says her family got involved with the first Relay for Life in Bellevue four years ago because her son wanted to participate. He passed away shortly before the event, just 10 months after his diagnosis.

“It was a very emotional relay for us,” Burns-Jelcz says. This year, they also will be honoring the memory of Jelcz’s father, who recently succumbed to lung cancer.

Now, she spends a lot of time talking with area high schools and reaching out to the Bellevue community for support of the event here. Last year, she says, she promised the students at Interlake High School that if at least 200 of them would come out and walk during the relay, that the event would be held at Interlake this year. They rose to the occasion, Burns-Jelcz says, coming out in force and raising about $7,500 for the American Cancer Society.

“They are so dedicated,” she says.

Burns-Jelcz has found strong support in the event from Key Bank as well, where she works. Last year, 175 employees from Key Bank raised about $18,000 of the $72,000 total raised through the event. Altogether, 66 teams with about 1,000 members participated last year.

Burns-Jelcz says the organization has set a target fundraising goal of $86,000 for this year’s event. Jelcz says one of the positives for him is that all the money raised here will stay in this state, going toward the society’s programs and advocacy as well as research.

Though most of the teams rally around a cancer patient, survivor or the memory of a loved one, anyone in the community is invited to participate by registering a team at http://www.relayforlife.org/bellevuewa. There’s a special high school division now due to the large number of high school students involved, and the organizers have chaperones there to watch those who are participating in the nighttime hours.

“It’s a good way for youth to get involved, and they have fun,” says Aimee Martin, Community Relationship Manager for the American Cancer Society in Bellevue. However, she says, “there’s not a dry eye in sight” when the luminaria ceremony takes place after dark, lighting candles to honor the memories of friends and loved ones who have lost their battles with cancer.

Between now and the event, the group will hold monthly team captain meetings to encourage captains and offer fundraising tips.

Burns-Jelcz says many people don’t know that one in three women and one in two men will contract cancer.

“This is a disease that hits any age,” she says.

The Relay is a way to turn the life-altering disease into something positive, Arasim says.

“I look at every day of my life so differently,” she says. “We’re celebrating the fact that I’m here."