DAPHNE, Ala. — Daphne High School’s stadium will be aglow all evening May 13, but the light won’t be from floodlights for a football game and the crowd gathered will be hoping for a victory against an invisible opponent, cancer.

Teams and individuals from across the Eastern Shore have worked all year to raise funds for Relay for Life in support of the fight to cure cancer.

“Relay starts at 5 p.m. The setting of the sun at this time reflects when a person is told that he or she has cancer. Things begin to go dark and grim. Hope goes on and relayers typically struggle to keep walking around the track during the early hours of the morning. This signifies a cancer patient going through chemo and becoming weak. As relayers fight to stay awake and walk, a cancer patient is fighting to live and keep up hope. When Relay ends at 6 a.m., the sun begins to come up over the horizon. This signifies a new day and a new beginning to a cancer patient,” a news release for the event stated.

Event organizer Caroline Kinney said the event gives others a glimpse into a cancer patient’s life.

“It goes for 12 hours overnight because cancer never sleeps. It is supposed to give everyone that comes out the experience of a cancer patient’s journey,” Kinney said.

Daphne resident Jose Salas survived non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and he credits Relay for Life with providing him support he needed to make it through.

Salas, 50, originally from El Paso, Texas, was diagnosed with cancer while he was in the Air Force.

“I was with the Air Force for 26 years. I was a paramedic and my last job I was a medical planner for the Air Force and that involved taking medical teams down to South America, Central America and the Caribbean. I traveled to all of these countries quite frequently,” Salas said.

When he got a bad cough, he initially thought it was just a result of his travels to third world countries. When his cough became so bad it was choking him, he sought medical attention.

The first doctor he went to diagnosed his cough as the result of pneumonia.

“I didn’t really think it was pneumonia. I went and got a second opinion, which came back and said I had a mass on the right side of my neck. It was non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” Salas said.

Salas received chemotherapy and radiation treatments for his cancer, and he is currently in remission.

“I have been clean for about 10 years now,” Salas said.

Going through treatments was tough, Salas said, but he found support from people around him and he felt a closeness to other survivors.

“Having gone through all that I had, I decided to join the Relay for Life team in Tuscon, Ariz. It is about going through the process. It is comparing it to what a person who has been diagnosed with cancer will go through, which is going through the diagnosis period where they get a lot of support and then all of the sudden you don’t have the support anymore,” Salas said.

Salas continues to participate in Relay for Life because of the connections the events create.

“For me, Relay for Life is building a support team for other survivors and honoring the memories of those people who were not able to survive it,” Salas said.

The theme for this year’s relay is “Wish Upon a Cure,” and more than 40 teams have been fundraising for nearly a year. The Relay for Life is the culmination and celebration of a yearlong effort to eradicate cancer.

Registration for the event begins at 5 p.m. at Daphne High School’s Jubilee Stadium and the first lap will begin at 6 p.m. The first lap is reserved for cancer survivors.

Kinney said the event will be filled with things to do to keep busy from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. with plenty of food as well.

There will be an Elvis impersonator, a hot air balloon ride that will take off from the middle of the football field for $5 per child and $10 per adult, a kids zone with inflatables, face painting and karaoke, Kinney said.

Best Buy will supply a tent filled with electronic entertainment, including gaming consoles and Guitar Hero throughout the evening, Kinney said.

A womanless beauty pageant will be held at 8:15 p.m. Men over 18 can dress up like women and compete for the titles of Ms. Relay 2011 and Ms. Relay Diva 2011.

Luminaries will be sold for a minimum donation of $5 in memory of loved ones who are battling, or have lost their battle, with cancer.

“The luminaria ceremony is probably one of the most special parts of the relay,” Kinney said. At 10:30 p.m. the stadium lights will go out and the walk will continue with light from hundreds of luminaries.

The top fundraising teams going into the Relay are Spot a Cure for Cancer, Life is Grand with $4,309 raised; Jungle Book: Swinging for a Cure, Bruno’s Supermarket with $3,829 raised; and Toy Story — To Infinity and Beyond, The City of Daphne with $2,162.

Kinney said teams have already raised $32,000 and teams will meet next week to turn in more money. Kinney said the bulk of fundraising is turned in during “bank night.” The Eastern Shore Relay for Life’s fundraising goal this year is $109,086.

For more information about the Eastern Shore Relay for Life contact Caroline Kinney at caroline.kinney@cancer.org or 251-928-8650.

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