Love, Tears, Hope At 12th Annual North Fork Relay For Life: Photos, Video

PECONIC, NY — Adrienne Lynch was just 34 years old, "fit as a fiddle," and four months' pregnant, joyfully expecting her first child, when she went for a checkup and the doctor found a tiny new black mole, the size of a pencil point, beneath her right eye.

She went in for a biopsy, thinking it was probably nothing.

Two days later, she heard the words she says she will never forget: "You have Stage 1 melanoma."

Facing the crowd who gathered at Jean Cochran Park in Peconic Friday night for the 12th Annual North Fork Relay for Life, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, Lynch, a survivor chosen to share her journey, paused. "Bingo. Right then and there, I was about to become a survivor," she said. "I was shocked, bewildered, and very, very scared."

Eleven years earlier she'd lost her father, Mike, only "52 years young — and I loved him to pieces," also to melanoma.

Because she's fair-haired and had grown up in the sun, Lynch was advised to get yearly skin checks. She followed her doctor's advice faithfully, and has since endured five cancer surgeries in 14 years for thyroid cancer and breast cancer.

"Have I not well and truly earned the title of survivor?" she asked.

She implored those in attendance to get checked yearly, for cancer. "Please, please do yourself and the ones who love you" the service of yearly exams. "Don't put off exams because you're too busy." You should never be too busy to do the thing that will save your life, she said.

Cancer, she said, is no longer the diagnosis it once was. In fact, Lynch said, two out of three people now survive cancer for at least five years. "We cannot be silent or stop fundraising until that number is three out of three. The key to survival is early detection," she said.

Lynch, a speaker at the North Fork Relay for Life event, gathered with the many taking part in the fundraiser, sharing love, tears, strength and hope as they walked the track in teams to fight deadly cancer, remembering beloved lives lost, and celebrating the survival of mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, babies and grandparents who have faced their most fierce foe and won the battle.

Relay for Life, Lynch said, also celebrates caregivers, the strong and heroic loved ones who stand with those battling cancer during their most challenging moments, bringing food, caring for kids, and holding hands and hearts.

Today, Lynch said, she's living the dream, raising her kids, working hard, and up to her ears in bills. "But I'm cancer free. And that puts everything else into perspective," she said.

"There are only three things that endure in life," Lynch said. "Faith, hope and love. Today, we celebrate love."

Those gathered Friday were gathered in love to fight cancer.

"Love unites us," Lynch said. "Join me in celebrating a world with less cancer and more birthdays."

The evening began with a North Fork Girl Scout color guard and flag presentation along with the Mattituck/Southold/Greenport ROTC.

A powerfully beautiful National Anthem was sung by ninth grader Shelby Dufton.

North Fork Cheer and the MainStage Dance Academy also performed for the crowd. The MainStage Dance Academy performed under the loving guidance of Lucille Naar-Saladino, who said Friday night that she has recently battled cancer.

Also teamed up to organize the event were Jennifer Foster, a 10-year breast cancer survivor — she got involved because of Jeremy Hamilton, who lost his battle with brain cancer at 35 — and Jeanine Warns, who was dedicating the night to her mom, a two year survivor.

Foster said the hope is that efforts such as Relay for Life will one day mean that a cure will be found.

The event also included a Survivor Reception hosted by Ammirati's, a barbecue by the Southold Fire Department, a survivor, caregiver and Cutchogue East Elementary School lap, hooping by Diane Gunder, a remember lap for Jeremy Hamilton with music by Erika Cabral & Friends, a heartfelt and a moving Luminaria ceremony, with messages of love written on illuminated white bags lighting the night and the path. There was a movie, pizza, music and dance, games, a pajama party, a scavenger hunt, food — and so much laughter, joy, and love.

Mothers and daughters embraced, children held their parents' hands, and together, a community joined its most fiercest fight in a battle against an enemy that will, they vowed, be won.

ACS staff partner Brittany DiDonato kicked off the evening by describing numbers that prove the war can, one day, be won: With 1.6 million new cases diagnosed each year and 600,000 people who die each year in the United States, "Cancer is a worthy opponent," she said.

But together, through events such as Relay for Life, hearts and hands can join together to create hope, taking action to save lives, she said.

Since 1946, $4.6 billion has been raised for cancer research, with $450 million currently allocated to researching 50 types of research.

Deaths in the United States due to cancer have decreased 23 percent since 1991 — a reduction of 1.7 million cancer deaths, DiDonato said.

At the event, top fundraising teams and individuals were honored, with certificates of thanks for the work all are doing to raise funds necessary for critical research, research that can save lives and give loved ones the gift of time.

"It's about hope," Warns said.