Scores of participants demonstrated their drive to beat cancer on Saturday, May 20, as they walked in The Relay For Life, a fundraising event for the American Cancer Society, which was held in a field house at NYA Sports & Fitness Center at Fairfield Hills.

Tracy Broomer and Gayle DiBenedetto served as co-chairpersons.

The 12-hour event celebrated cancer survivors and their caregivers, and also memorialized those who have died of cancer. The Relay For Life provided a range of activities for participating teams, focusing on continuous marching around the track.

The event began with a free lunch for cancer survivors and their caregivers on the rear patio at NYA. After the meal, participants posed for a group portrait near the NYA fountain.

Shannon Hicks and John Voket, associate editors at The Newtown Bee, were the honorary survivor speakers at the opening ceremonies.

Ms Hicks told the more than 200 people in the field house that her cancer was discovered late in the summer of 2009, after she had found a lump on her neck.

She described the ordeal of chemotherapy, during which the drug treatments intended to counter the cancer caused debilitating side effects. She explained the important role of her caregivers during her treatment, and the key role that they played in her recovery.

"Some cancers are still inexplicable. How did I get a cancer of the blood? I don't know. We need the American Cancer Society to continue providing grants to researchers, who will someday find the link between a person's immune system and the curious turn that it sometimes takes into a medical ailment," she said.

"I was lucky. I had cancer. But I had one of the curable forms of cancer," she said.

"The work we are all doing this weekend is important," Ms Hicks stressed.

Mr Voket said that in December 2012, he could not shake a bad cold, and after medical examinations, he learned that he had throat cancer.

He described the long, difficult process of cancer treatment, involving radiation therapy, the harrowing side effects of the treatments, and how they played havoc with his digestive tract.

He said that last month it was determined that he had beaten the disease, with there being only a 1 in 1,000 chance that it would recur.

Of the ongoing drive to find the cure for cancer, Mr Voket said, "You don't have to march on the Capitol, you're walking right here and that is in some ways more important.

"Because you're walking for Newtown, you're walking for a world without cancer," he said.

Money raised through the Relay for Life program is used to fund cancer research, to conduct cancer prevention programs, to provide patient support programs, and for cancer detection and treatment programs, among other uses.

According to Ms Broomer, Ricci's Salon in Newtown collected 26 ponytails for the Pantene Beautiful Lengths campaign. That project allows people to donate their hair for women who have lost their hair due to their cancer treatment. Those donations of hair are converted into free, real-hair wigs by the firm HairUWear, and are then distributed through the American Cancer Society's wig banks.

The 2017 Relay For Life event has raised more than $32,000 so far, according to Ms Broomer. Nearly $10,000 of that sum was raised on the day of the event through onsite activities, including raffles, snack and water sales, contributions from vendors, and the purchase of luminaria ceremony bags.