Countywide : Overnight Benefits Help Battle Cancer

Hundreds of county residents showed up at four sites Friday night to remember those who have died from cancer--and to celebrate the lives of those diagnosed with the disease but still surviving.

Thousands of candles were lit for the living and the dead as teams of residents took turns walking or jogging around a race track for 12 hours as part of the American Cancer Society’s “Relay for Life Slumber Party” fund-raiser.

More than $100,000 was expected to be raised for cancer research from the event, which ended early this morning and attracted cancer survivors and family members and friends from all over. Tents were pitched for the all-night vigil, which took place simultaneously at Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach, Valencia High School in Placentia, Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo and Golden West College in Huntington Beach.

“By the end of 1995, lung cancer will have killed more people than any other cancer, and it’s the most preventable cancer that there is,” said Margaret Edwards, a spokeswoman for Orange County’s American Cancer Society. “And in Orange County alone this year, there will be 10,970 people diagnosed with the disease.”