BURLEY, ID (KMVT) The American Cancer society's "Relay for Life" has become an annual tradition in Magic Valley. Three local women who've been touched by cancer want to stand up and fight the deadly disease.

When Shirley Dayley was 19 years old, she found a lump in her neck. She was diagnosed with Hodgkins disease, a form of cancer. The lump was removed, and radiation treatments killed her cancer. Two and half years ago at age 41, dayley found out she had breast cancer, and she's been having chemotherapy since then.

Dayley says, "What we sometimes forget is that chemotherapy also breaks your body down, it brings you almost to death. And then if you're lucky, you start to rebuild, and your body begins to rebuild, and that is a very long process."

The money raised by the annual Relay for Life is used for patient services, and to pay for research. Dayley says a friend of hers with cancer was treated with a new medicine discovered by some of that research. Now she's surviving and thriving. Family members of cancer patients also join the cause.

Tammy Oliver of Mini-Cassia Relay for Life says, "I'm involved with the Relay for Life because my brother is a two-time cancer survivor, my mother and my father are both cancer survivors, and I've had numerous friends and other family that have had cancer. Some of them haven't made it and some of them have."

Mini-Cassia Relay for Life has usually been held in the Rupert Square. But this year's event on June 8th and 9th will take place at the Cassia County Fairgrounds in Burley. For more information, call 300-0219.

Vicki Cole of the American Cancer Society says, "The Relay for Life is a time to celebrate our cancer survivors, remember those that have passed away, and to fight back against cancer."

Jan. 26, 2012.