Relay for Life attracts hundreds of participants

Posted by Bill Donovan | Jun 18, 2015 | News |

GALLUP

Relay For Life walkers hold their banner in front of them on Friday evening at the County Courthouse Plaza at the 15th annual Relay For Life in Gallup. (Times photo – Donovan Quintero)

Maggie Billiman places a candle next to her father, Navajo Code Talker Howard Billiman’s portrait, on Friday during the 15th annual Relay For Life in Gallup. According to his daughter, Billiman died of stomach cancer on Jan. 1, 2001. (Times photo – Donovan Quintero)

Several hundred people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds celebrated surviving cancer or remembered a family member who died of cancer during the 15th annual Relay for Life event held at the McKinley County Courtyard Plaza this past weekend.

The event attracted more people than usual because of the mild weather, with events including singing, dancing, drums, scavenger hunts an speeches that ran from 7 p.m. Friday until after dawn on Saturday.

Lisa Frazier, one of the team leaders for the event is held every year in Gallup throughout the night to remind people that “cancer never sleeps.”

Although diabetes is growing among Native American populations and gets a lot of publicity, officials for the Indian Health Service say cancer is a bigger killer among both native and non-native populations with as many as one out of every three people contracting some form of cancer during their lifetimes.

Maggie Billiman writes a short memento that expresses her thoughts and emotions for her late father Navajo Code Talker Howard Billiman at the 15th annual Relay For Life in Gallup. (Times photo – Donovan Quintero)