We’re still two weeks away from the Relay For Life festivities, but I’d like to take the opportunity to reflect on the incredible commitment Georgetown has made and continues to make to this wonderful organization. As a cancer survivor, I know firsthand how critical the need for research money is and how much of an impact programs like Relay For Life can have on improving the quality of treatment and offering hope to cancer patients and their loved ones. I’m touched that so many of my fellow students, though they might have personal reasons for doing so, are willing to give themselves to improve the lives of strangers they will probably never meet.

Plenty of students have met me, of course; I suppose I’m an exception to that rule. Over time, cancer has not become less remote to the average person, despite significant progress in the medical field; cancer seems to touch more lives than ever.

This should not discourage you from donating – on the contrary, this phenomenon may be attributable to better diagnostic testing. Still, this trend highlights the need to continue our efforts to support life-saving research and outreach programs, particularly in tough economic times, when charitable giving is often the first area to be cut back. If you haven’t already given, I would strongly encourage you to do so. Even if you don’t have a lot to give, whatever you are able to share brings us that much closer to finding a cure.

For the lucky few of you whose personal lives have not been touched by cancer, I would like to share my story with you – not so that you can feel sorry for me but so that you can see the impact Relay For Life can have on individual lives.

y own journey began in 1992, when I had a literal run-in with my sister’s hula hoop. It sounds crazy, but it’s true – even as a 4-year-old, I was endowed with a profound case of clumsiness, which turned out to be my saving grace. I was hit in the mouth by the hula hoop – had we been playing football, she would have been charged with “unnecessary roughness.” What seemed like a routine backyard accident turned out to be much more sinister – the swelling never subsided, and on Nov. 4 the reason was discovered. A bone cancer called osteogenic sarcoma was diagnosed in my upper left jaw.

To make a long story short, I spent the better part of a year in Boston in Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in, where, under the supervision of some very talented doctors, I underwent an intensive regiment of chemotherapy sessions and endured a dangerously long surgery to remove the tumor in my jaw. The price? A quarter of my teeth, my hair, a year of my life and hundreds of thousands of dollars – but I survived, and 16 years later I find myself at Georgetown (where, ironically enough, it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars for me to pull my hair out wondering if I’m going to “survive”).

I’m no mathematician, but those are some incredible odds – I lost the genetic lottery by inheriting a dangerous disease, but won another genetic lottery by being born into a family that could pay for my treatment. I wouldn’t fault my parents for hoping that I would win a third – maybe a state lottery – to reimburse them.

I’m not alive because of chance: I’m still standing thanks to the skills of some of the best doctors in the world – skills that could not have been acquired were it not for programs like Relay For Life that fund groundbreaking cancer research.

For that reason, I applaud Georgetown’s commitment to programs like Relay For Life. I am honored to belong to a community that not only helps to fund such significant research, but also conducts cutting-edge experiments at Georgetown University Hospital. I was thrilled to learn that Georgetown led the nation’s colleges in fundraising for Relay last year, and we’ve already raised more than $166,000 this year.

Let’s make the most of these next two weeks and defend our title as the number one college host of Relay For Life in the country. If you haven’t gotten involved, I would strongly encourage you to do so, as it’s a blast – just watch out for those hula hoops.

Colin Nagle is a sophomore in the College. He can be reached at naglethehoya.com. Getting in Tune appears every other Friday. For a look at Colin’s involvement in fundraising for Relay for Life please see his interview in The Guide.

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