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Posted at: 07/10/2009 10:47 PM Olmsted Relay for Life Underway(ABC 6 NEWS) -- The annual Olmsted Relay for Life continues until seven-thirty Saturday morning. The annual event raises money for cancer research and is an opportunity for families who've lost loved ones to cancer to remember them. It's also a chance for survivors to spend time together. ABC 6 NEWS sponsored tonight's relay for life -our own Sarah Swistak was the emcee. There are two more relay for life events in our area yet this summer - in Mower county on Friday August 1st and in Freeborn county on Friday, August 14th. ABC 6 NEWS is sponsoring all of these events As we mentioned, all the money raised will go toward the fight against cancer. But money isn't everything, also at tonight's relay, the American Cancer Society was asking volunteers to sign up for a study - the largest study of it's kind. A doctor spotted something in dawn nelson's breast at a routine physical in 2003. "She said, it's just a shadow and it really I don't think it's anything, I really don't but I can't dismiss it, we're going to do a biopsy," says Dawn Nelson. Word came back: it was cancer. "I remember just being in shock," says daughter Jaime. 6 years later, Dawn's daughter Jaime is overjoyed that her Mom's cancer-free. Friday she volunteered to enroll in a study to help fight the disease that could have taken her mom's life. "Just for me to be able to partake in something that perhaps could prevent - it's just a step that I could take," Jaime says, Jaime gave blood, had her waist measured and filled out questionnaires for the study that will continue for decades. "Looking at their health habits, their eating habits, their exercise habits. Are they taking certain medications, are there things that people are doing that are helping to prevent cancer or cause cancer,” says a cancer researcher. The goal: to learn lessons, prevent cancer, and save lives. But for many, cancer itself has taught some pretty important lessons, already. “Do you realize how lucky you are - we never find this kind of breast cancer this early - he said we never do - and so then I knew it wasn't meant to kill me I was meant to learn from it," says Nelson. Nelson was a nurse-in-training when she got cancer. She says being a cancer survivor makes her a better nurse, because now when she has to tell a patient she has cancer, she knows how it feels. For the first time ever participants will be able to fill out questionnaires online.
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