Walkers on Track to Raise Cancer Funds

A painful, malignant melanoma in the center of Tim Welch’s back almost killed the 51-year-old Moorpark truck driver, but he beat the odds and lived.

At age 4, freckle-faced Ryan Daly was undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia and now he’s a healthy 8-year-old who plays center on a flag football team.

The two were among more than 1,000 people who gathered Saturday at Moorpark College’s Griffin Stadium for the second annual Relay for Life, a fund-raising walk benefiting the American Cancer Society.

Many shared stories of struggling to survive cancer’s debilitating effects. Others walked to remember a relative or friend claimed by a disease that kills more than 500,000 people in the United States each year.

Event participants, who each collected pledges, worked in teams to walk the quarter-mile track for two hours at a time. The walking started Saturday morning and will conclude at 9 a.m. today.

Organizers said they expect to beat last year’s pledge total of $140,000. Nearly 90% of the money collected from the relay will be used to pay for programs offered by the cancer society’s local office.

Co-chairman Gary Cabriales said the event’s timing--amid jitters about terrorism and war--gave participants a chance to relax.

“This is a very positive event at a time when people are looking for ways to come together,” said Cabriales, a Delta Airlines pilot who lives in Moorpark. “It makes us all appreciate what we have a little more.”

Under a blazing midday sun, teams of walkers made their way around the dirt track as a rock band played on an infield stage surrounded by dozens of tents.

During breaks from walking, participants rested on the infield and sipped drinks that had been donated for the event.

Walkers also lit candles that were placed inside white and brown paper bags around the track’s perimeter. Names written on the white bags were those of area residents who had died from cancer; the brown bags listed its survivors.

Scott McGrath survived several surgeries to remove cancerous growths on his chest, but his wife, Wendy, was barely 42 when she died four years ago from a rare form of bile cancer.

McGrath said his melanoma is in remission. On Saturday, he hoisted his 10-year-old son on his back and made several laps around the track.

His wife’s death came almost a year to the day after she was diagnosed in the summer of 1996. McGrath said they worked hard to accept the disease and make final plans together. They picked out cemetery plots and McGrath promised his wife of 20 years that he would do his best to raise their son.

“There are significant advantages to knowing you only have a finite amount of time left,” said the 45-year-old computer programmer. “All of us fall into a casual attitude about life. Now when I see my son, so much of him is her.”