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Because 'cancer never sleeps'
Local physicians group joins round-the-clock relay coming to Cuesta Park

by Alexa Tondreau

Early next month, the American Cancer Society will hold its annual "Relay for Life" event, which has relay teams around the nation on the move for a day and a night in order to raise money for cancer research.

For the duration of the event, which begins June 2, at least one person from each team will be running or walking the selected route. This year, a group of Mountain View doctors, the Women Physicians Ob-Gyn Medical Group, will be taking part in the relay at Cuesta Park.

"The idea of the relay is that cancer never sleeps," said Katherine Sutherland, a doctor with the Women Physicians group and a cancer survivor. "The relay has to keep going all night long. It's a very symbolic way of saying, 'We have to keep fighting.'"

So far, the Women Physicians group has assembled a team of 12 people, Sutherland said, including the four doctors in the practice, staff members and several patients. But she was quick to encourage any and all interested parties to join the group's relay team, or just to come out and support participants in the event.

The Women Physicians team — which hopes to raise $5,000 for the American Cancer Society — is one of several Mountain View teams scheduled to participate in the relay at Cuesta Park. (Other teams include MidPeninsula Surgical Associates, El Camino Hospital's Cancer Center, and two other ECH teams.)

Cuesta Park should be a lively place to spend some time that weekend, Sutherland said. There will be booths set up with games and arts and crafts, and a band is scheduled to perform. Food and refreshments will be provided, she said.

Additionally, the Women Physicians plan to take the opportunity to educate the public.

"We're bringing a lot of information with us," Sutherland said. "We'll have newsletters, handouts and videos."

There will also be representatives on hand from the hospital's Cancer Center and from a local nursing group, Sutherland said.

Perhaps the most moving part of the event comes at dusk, when participants can light "luminarias"— small, candle-lit containers — which are decorated in honor and support of family members or friends who have suffered from cancer.

Most of those involved in the relay from the Women Physicians group have been affected by cancer, either personally or through the experience of friends and family.

"It's so amazing how many people have had a brush with cancer," Sutherland said, adding that her own experience with the disease motivated her to help organize the upcoming event.

"When you're given that diagnosis, it really stops you in your tracks," she said. "It gets you to re-thinking your life."

Sutherland said that as a doctor and a cancer survivor she lives with the feeling "that there is always more that can be done." Part of her interest in generating funds for the American Cancer Society comes from the organization's reputable standing.

She said that although by and large her patients — who come from all over the South Bay and Peninsula — are a fairly well-informed group when it comes to cancer, she is still surprised by the number of misconceptions and fallacies some patients believe.

"We love the Internet for the ease of finding information, but it's easy to get a lot of misinformation from it," she said. "I've had patients refuse treatment because of what they read" on the Internet, she said.

Sutherland recommends the American Cancer Society's Web site as a good place to start for accurate and comprehensive information on specific types of cancer.

INFORMATION:

What: Relay for Life 2007, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society

When: 10 a.m. Saturday, June 2 to 10 a.m. Sunday, June 3

Where: Cuesta Park, 615 Cuesta Dr., Mountain View

Contact: To support or to join the Women Physicians relay team, contact Lisa Reid at (650) 988-7550. To join or to donate online, visit www.acsevents.org/relay/ca/mountainview, or go to www.cancer.org and click on "Relay for Life."

E-mail Alexa Tondreau at atondreau@mv-voice.com

Information on this website is for educational and reference purposes only and should not be interpreted as specific medical advice.

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Women Physicians

Ob-Gyn Medical Group

650.988.7550