Giving ‘more birthdays’

Sitting in her nautical-themed living room, Marlene Beck recounted her experience with the disease she is working so hard to eradicate — her fight with breast cancer and her son’s losing battle with a brain tumor — without a tear and with a smile on her face.

In a milk-chocolate brown T-shirt promoting the Relay for Life and a pin over her heart supporting the same thing, Beck showed palpable enthusiasm and dedication as she talked of the importance of “More Birthdays,” the theme of the American Cancer Society’s signature fundraiser.

At the Relay for Life, teams walk around a track, someone walking at all times, for 24 hours straight to raise money for cancer research.

Walking around the track, watching others who are all working for the same thing, is a “wonderful” feeling, said Beck, the Fountain Valley event’s co-chairwoman.

Beck is a cancer survivor, having gone on an “adventure” with breast cancer and watched her son fight a brain tumor for five years. During one Relay for Life, she walked hand-in-hand with her son around the track during the Survivor’s Lap when it hit her that she should step up her support.

“That was it. That just stuck with me. I knew I had to give back,” she said.

Beck’s breast cancer went into remission, but her son, Don, didn’t survive and died in July. In the end, Beck said, she prayed to God to take him. Her strong, outgoing son had become weak, not even strong enough to speak, and it was his time to go, she said.

After everything she has gone through, Beck said it’s important to stay positive and not take anything for granted.

“You should live every day, every minute of your day, like it’s your last,” she said.

The money raised during the Relay for Life goes directly to research for new treatment, medicine and the search for a cure, she said.

“I truly believe that we need to give back, and we need to fight to get rid of this horrible disease,” she said.

The Fountain Valley committee’s goal is to raise $75,000, almost $10,000 more than last year, but it needs more than money to put on the relay.

To accomplish it, the organizers are going to need volunteers and teams of participants, but the hardest part is getting the word out, Beck said.

“Everybody knows about Susan Komen, but nobody knows about the relay,” Beck said, referring to Susan B. Komen for the Cure, a fundraiser dedicated to fighting breast cancer.

Whether participants donate their time, ideas or money, it is making a difference, said Yolanda Markey, a Relay for Life participant.

“It’s baby steps, but they count up,” she said.

The relay isn’t until June, but the Fountain Valley committee is holding a kick-off meeting tonight with food, entertainment and information — a party, Beck said.

For more information, go to www.relayforlife.org/fountainvalleyca, or call Beck at (714) 968-3192.

If You Go

What: Relay for Life meeting

When: 6 tonight

Where: Heritage House at 10200 Slater Ave., Fountain Valley