ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

Bobbie Parker remembers the moment her life changed forever. It was 1987, not long after she lost her mother, Mary, to pancreatic cancer. Grief-stricken but determined, she sought a way to honor her mother¡¯s memory and help others facing the same devastating disease. That search led her to the ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ (ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ), where she found a pursuit that would define the next four decades of her life: bringing hope to those impacted by cancer.

After a short stint as a hospice volunteer, Bobbie found her true calling, raising money and awareness to help end cancer. It started with bake sales and door-to-door fundraising. Then, in 1993, Bobbie helped organize the first Relay For Life? of Bertie County, a previously unknown event in rural northeastern North Carolina where she lived and worked as a teacher.

Expanding the Reach of Relay For Life

In the fall of 1993, Bobbie and an ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ team member met for lunch. ¡°She came to me with a red three-ring binder, and on the front, written in magic marker, was ¡®Relay For Life Activity.¡¯ She put it on the table and said, ¡®Do you think we can do this in Bertie County?¡¯ I started thumbing through it and said, ¡®Yeah, we can certainly try,¡¯¡± Bobbie recalled.

They then got to work planning North Carolina¡¯s first official Relay For Life.?

¡°We decided to do it with only the information we had in that three-ring binder,¡± Bobbie recalled. In May of 1994, Bobbie traveled for training with four others to Tacoma, Washington, where the Relay For Life movement began nine years earlier.

¡°We came back the very next weekend and held our Relay,¡± she said. ¡°We had already scheduled it for that weekend. We didn¡¯t know what we were doing yet. We had no PA system, no entertainment. We just walked. That¡¯s all we did. We just walked for 24 hours.¡±?

That first Relay For Life of Bertie County featured 11 teams, raised approximately $14,500, and spread hope among all its participants. Since then, it has grown to a community-wide event and celebration of survivors, raising over $5 million in the county of about 18,000 people.?

Merchants of Hope

¡°The ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ is a business, but the commodity it is selling is hope,¡± said Bobbie, a member of the?North Carolina Relay For Life Hall of Fame and recipient of a North Carolina ?ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Lifetime Achievement Award. ¡°Every dollar raised through Relay For Life is a strike against cancer. Each strike and every dollar brings hope. Hope for education to prevent cancer and detect cancer early; hope for patient services; hope for cancer research; and hope to the hearts of cancer patients and their families. Each of us are merchants of hope.¡±??

Bobbie said she loves ¡°the opportunity to bring the survivors out there at Relay For Life and see the look on their faces. It¡¯s a look of knowing that people care, that people are fighting for them, and that people are trying to give them hope. For them to be honored and recognized. It¡¯s an opportunity to make the survivors feel special.¡±

Keeping the Passion Burning

Bobbie remains as committed and passionate as ever to helping end cancer as we know it, for everyone. She reflects back on the 1994 trip to Washington, where she learned about ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ pay-if grants, qualified grants which ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ will fund if there is money available to do so.?

¡°It hit me that day: what if there had been a grant in the past that didn¡¯t get funded? Or could have helped my mother¡¯s cancer, and my mother wouldn¡¯t have had to die of pancreatic cancer because of lack of research and cures?¡± Bobbie said. ¡°That stayed with me. I¡¯ve lost so many friends and family members to cancer over the years. What if that grant out there that didn¡¯t get funded could have been a cure or could have come up with some new technique to help patients survive?¡±

Bobbie said those thoughts have been her driving force in the years since. ¡°You can¡¯t let your passion wane when almost every time you turn around a new friend or family member has been diagnosed. You can¡¯t let those embers sit there and just smolder. You just can¡¯t do it. They keep getting rekindled,¡± she said.?

Since that fire was ignited in her to make a difference, Bobbie hasn¡¯t stopped. She continues to spread hope everywhere she goes.

¡°In our communities, there is much Relay For Life work to be done,¡± she said. ¡°In our hearts, there is the power to do it.¡±