Peabody Relay for Life Kicks Off Season With 'The Big Picture'

The annual celebration to begin the planning and awareness of the local relay for cancer is Jan. 27 at Temple Beth Shalom.

Peabody Relay for Life Kicks Off Season With 'The Big Picture'

The annual celebration to begin the planning and awareness of the local relay for cancer is Jan. 27 at Temple Beth Shalom.

[The following was submitted by the Peabody Relay for Life Committee.] Peabody's Relay for Life will be hosting its annual Kick Off Celebration on Sunday, Jan. 27. The theme of this year's Kick Off  is "THE BIG PICTURE." Learn about healthy living, enter raffles, receive free giveaways, learn about the Relay, and sign up or join a team. Taking place at Temple Beth Shalom, 489 Lowell St., Peabody, from 1-4 p.m., "THE BIG PICTURE" will feature numerous booths and demonstrations staffed by doctors, health officials, survivors, nutritionists and others who will be speaking and demonstrating healthy living ideas and easy lifestyle changes all designed to look at "THE BIG PICTURE" of preventing cancer or surviving cancer. Visitors to the …

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The Relay Starts Friday

Peabody's annual Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society is this weekend. Check out the schedule.

Join in the celebration! Beginning on Friday, and continuing for 18 hours, the Peabody Relay for Life will be off and running. This year's outstanding Peabody Relay for Life will take place beginning at 3 p.m. Friday, June 15 to 9 a.m. Saturday, June 16 at the Peabody Veterans Memorial High School track. Relay teams will walk the track all day and night, taking pledges and donations for their fight against cancer. Relay teams from Peabody and all over the North Shore "camp" on the field, maintaining a presence on the track at all times, and often selling baked goods, jewelry, home products and craft items. A special "Relay Store" is set up in the Field House, and American Cancer Society Relay items are available for purchase, as well as …

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Relay for Life Will Be Local Site for New Cancer Study This Year

This year's Relay for Life is a little different -- the signature fundraiser for the American Cancer Society will also be a site for local residents to participate in a long-term study on the genetics of cancer.

Local Relay for Life coordinator and Peabody resident Steve Burke is a self-declared "Equal Opportunity Cancer Hater," and he along with the American Cancer Society are encouraging people who don't have the disease to participate in a cancer prevention study that will explore the genetic link and causes of cancer at this year's relay this summer. "What we're trying to find out is if you eliminate smoking, drug abuse and environmental issues, will people still get cancer?" Burke explained. "We know if you smoke, there is a higher probablility of lung cancer. Cancer can also be caused by living in a toxic environment that hasn't been cleaned up." "Researchers are looking for genetic markers to develop vaccines to prevent cancer from occuring…

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Remembering Cancer Hero Myde Stocker

Stocker, after battling cancer for 13 years and inspiring many others to continue the fight for a cure, died on March 5. She was 59. She was chosen as the Huffington Post's Greatest Person of the Day on Thursday.

[Editor's Note: Myde Stocker has been chosen as The Huffington Post's Greatest Person of the Day for Thursday, March 8. You can read about past honorees here.] "Myde's Minions" lost its original hero this week, although her spirit is sure to live on. Peabody cancer survivor Myde Stocker, who has battled a blood form of cancer over the past 13 years, died on Monday. She was 59. The team of supporters that formed around her each year in the Peabody Relay for Life -- "Myde's Minions" -- has become almost synonymous with the event itself, which is a signature event for the American Cancer Society. In 2010, Stocker received a Community Spirit Award from the Peabody Area Chamber of Commerce. The awards are presented to local unsung heroes who …

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Walk for the Cure Draws Huge Crowd

Large numbers convened at Peabody’s Coley Lee Stadium to lend their support for the fight against cancer this past weekend, celebrate those who have survived and remember those who are no longer here.

The rain held off, despite the threatening clouds Friday night as the 2011 Peabody Relay for Life got underway on the high school track. The event, which is one of the main fundraisers for the American Cancer Society conducted all across the nation, lasted from Friday afternoon through until Saturday morning. Before cancer survivors lapped the track to officially start the relay, city and school officials welcomed everyone to the event and urged both survivors and those currently battling cancer, as well as their supporters, to keep on fighting. Mayor Michael Bonfanti, Superintendent of Schools Milton Burnett and Peabody Veterans Memorial High School Principal all spoke, in addition to guest speaker Dorrie Kimkaran, a past chairperson of …

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Former Chair Kimkaran to Kick Off Relay for Life

Dorrie Kimkaran, a cancer survivor and past chairperson of the Peabody Relay for Life, will be the guest speaker at Friday’s opening ceremonies scheduled for 6 p.m. at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School.

It is not often that someone other than an elected official speaks before a Relay for Life kicks off. But during a planning meeting prior to the event, which is Friday and Saturday at Peabody High School, event chairperson Karen Esperson and former chairperson Dorrie Louise Kimkaran discussed bringing in a cancer survivor. They decided that Kimkaran would be the best choice in fact. Kimkaran, a Hamilton resident, is a 14-year survivor of advanced misdiagnosed cervical cancer. She was given only a 65 percent chance to live five years. She chaired the Peabody Relay for Life from 2005 to 2007 and is heavily involved in the American Cancer Society, including the July 17 Mystery Poker Run Cruisin’ For a Cure in Beverly. “She’s (participated) in…

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Peabody Families Relay for a Cure

The Peabody Relay for Life is taking place at PVMHS this Friday and Saturday.

Beverly Griffin Dunne began attending the Peabody Relay for Life with her son’s Boy Scout Troop. Then in 2008, when her son Brian was a senior at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School, he was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare pediatric cancer. And just like that, as it has become for so many other families, Dunne’s involvement in the annual event was now so much more personal. The next year, 2009, Dunne and her family formed their own relay team: “All Dunne with Cancer,” and have been participating in the relay ever since. This year they have two teams participating. And this year, Dunne is the honorary chairperson of the relay. “The Relay for Life is a huge community event,” Dunne said. “I think one of the most important things …

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