“Cancer gives new insight on relay’s purpose”</p>
<p>Relay for Life team captains of Infinite Survival have both survived cancer in the last three years, and now embark on a fundraising campaign with energy and determination.</p>
<p>**Already two thirds to their goal of $3,000, co-captain Jan Gibson said she has been e-mailing friends and past co-workers campaigning and recruiting. With 14 team members now, Gibson said since it was their team’s first year they set the goal low, but they will set another goal.</p>
<p>‘‘We’ll fundraise ‘til it’s over,” she said.**</p>
<p>Infinite Survival has a Web site through Relay for Life where donations can be placed and tracked during the next few months with the June 13 Relay for Life culminating the fundraising at Calvert High School.</p>
<p>Co-captain Vicki Guy said she set an individual goal of $750 three weeks ago, and just reached her goal Tuesday after selling purple fundraising ribbons to Chesapeake Collision and Hudson Sunoco this week. ‘‘I just increased my goal to $1,200,” she said.</p>
<p>Guy, who works at Carver Chiropractic Center in Huntingtown, said Daniel Behe, a chiropractor at the center, also agreed to participate in fundraising activities at the center in May. Infinite Survival is planning a yard sale for May 17 at the Calvert County Fairgrounds. ‘‘We don’t let grass grow under our feet,” Guy said enthusiastically about their fundraising.</p>
<p>Both Gibson and Guy worked in Greenbelt at Northrop Grumman and many of their co-workers who still work there have donated to their team, Gibson said. Half the team is current or former Northrop Grumman employees, she said.</p>
<p>‘‘We have had a few substantial donations,” she said, with almost all of them online.</p>
<p>While working at Northrop Grumman, Gibson was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005 and went through treatment.</p>
<p>Guy was diagnosed in June 2005 with stage three breast cancer having 21 lymph nodes infected. Guy said the cancer came on quickly, saying she had a mammogram in November 2004 and then found some spots in January 2005 and was told to keep an eye on it.</p>
<p>In June 2005 after returning from a vacation, she went to her doctor for a sinus infection and was referred to a specialist right then when the doctor saw her lumps, she said. Her lumps had grown bigger since January and began to hurt, she told her doctor, and a biopsy was immediately performed.</p>
<p>‘‘Three days later, I was told I had cancer in my lymph nodes,” she said. ‘‘It was scary, it came out so fast.”</p>
<p>Cancer does not run in her family, Guy said, and commended her doctor, Dr. Jan Chriten, for immediate action and support. Guy had a lumpectomy in November 2005, four months of chemotherapy and seven weeks of radiation beginning in January 2006, she said, adding that her oncologist, Dr. Cheryl Ayles of Suburban Hospital, was wonderful.</p>
<p>‘‘I’ve been cancer-free since radiation, I was very fortunate,” Guy said.</p>
<p>Guy worked as commission manager in a sales group at Northrop Grumman during her diagnosis and treatment, and said her coworkers were ‘‘wonderful and supportive to me during that time.”</p>
<p>Gibson also said her coworkers were supportive as she went through treatment in 2005, about the same time Guy was going through treatment.</p>
<p>‘‘We kind of work through this together,” Gibson said. It’s been three years since, and Gibson said she has been cancer-free.</p>
<p>A member of a lung cancer support group, Gibson said her cousin, Kathi Bell Aldridge, however, lost her battle to cancer 11 years ago, and the team is dedicated to her. During last year’s Relay for Life, Gibson purchased a luminary for her cousin and it was placed around the track with many others in memory of other people, she said.</p>
<p>‘‘It was very moving.”</p>
<p>Gibson said the team plans to make infinity circle necklaces with words such as survivor, peace, or hope in the middle of the circle and sell during the event. The team also plans to sell healthy food at the event.</p>
<p>‘‘You meet great people at the relay,” she said.</p>
<p>After helping her daughter Kara’s team from Calvert Middle School last year, she said both she and Guy decided to create their own team.</p>
<p>The team’s name, Infinite Survival, came from Gibson’s business name, Infinite Errands, a concierge and errands service, she said.</p>
<p>This is Guy’s first year on a team for Relay for Life as well, but she has participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure for three years. In two months Guy said she raised $2,000 for Race for the Cure.</p>
<p>She, too has been in contact with co-workers, family and friends as she campaigns.</p>
<p>Guy, who worked for Northrop Grumman for 18 years, said her co-workers were there for her during the Race for the Cure fundraising, and they had donations for her again.</p>
<p>Guy, who said she was raised on a dairy farm in the Mid-West with seven siblings, isn’t afraid of hard work. The farm included a quarter of an acre vegetable garden which she helped work, and today Guy continues vegetable gardening at her home, she said.</p>
<p>‘‘It’s good to put your hands in dirt,” she said. Guy said she loves to garden and the vegetables taste good, too.</p>
<p>During the 2007 Relay for Life, Calvert County earned the national and regional awards for highest per capita event and top online regional fundraising relay award.</p>
<p>The county registered 1,680 participants with 111 teams last year.