Two cancer survivors received honors from Franklin County Relay for Life.
Cathy Short and Jack Holmes, both of Frankfort, are the recipients of the Honorary Survivor 2016, an accolade that the local Relay has shared for as many as eight years.
Relay’s Theresa Bates said that the honor, which was announced Tuesday at the West Frankfort Aquatics Center, was the culmination of nominations made in a narrative form for a contest that happens each year. People are encouraged to tell of their personal encounters and relationships with survivors and caretakers struggling with cancer, she said.
Bates, who is this year’s Relay co-chairwoman, a role she shares with Alecia Schnaiter, said the written nominations are reviewed and two winners selected.
It just turned out this year that both recipients are survivors, she said.
It is a blind judging of the nominations to ensure the reviews remain objective. Those who judge the entries “don’t know the names but they know the stories,” Bates said.
Jack Holmes' nomination was written by Connie Sieveking, who tells of the teen who's suffered for years with neuroblastoma, a malignancy of nerve cells most often found in children and that many times spreads quickly.
"I first got acquainted with Jack when he was in grade school and joined the Cub Scouts," Sieveking wrote. "He did not let the fact that he walked with arm-band crutches ... stop him from doing the activities that Scouting provides. He continued to keep up with the rest of the boys. That spirit is still alive and well in Jack."
Sieveking, a school district employee, also told about a single incident of determination at school that shows the courage Holmes -- now a high school student -- regularly displays.
"One day in class, I needed something delivered to the office on the first floor," she wrote. "The classroom was on the third floor.
"(Jack) immediately volunteered. I knew the struggle it would be to walk down and back up all those stairs. He insisted he would run the errand for me. I let him. He proved that day, to me and all other students, that nothing holds Jack Holmes back."
A mother's love filled the nomination that Cindy Lingle authored for her daughter, Cathy Short, who received a lumpectomy in 2011, only to be back in surgery two weeks later for a total mastectomy. Four chemo treatments and a single blood transfusion followed that surgery. Today, she is five years cancer free, Lingle writes."I simply cannot get over the fact of how strong she has been and what an inspiration to others she has been that are going through the same thing," she wrote. "She is willing to talk to anyone concerning breast cancer and helps in anyway she can, especially pray."
Lingle added, "I am telling you, the word cancer is the most scary word there is and when it is a loved one of yours, it is the scariest ever. I have a renewed faith for all who are battling cancer."
Bates said both Short and Holmes will be recognized in the Rend Lake Water Festival Parade on May 7, the Old King Cole Parade in West Frankfort on May 14 and at the Franklin County Relay for Life that runs from 5 p.m. to midnight, June 24, at West Frankfort Park.
Bates said she believes that Franklin County is the only Relay for Life group that honors survivors and caretakers in such a way.
The program doesn’t just recognize such special people, she said, but it also promotes Relay for Life, which works to promote community awareness of cancer, help fight for a cure and provide support for its victims, including the families of those afflicted.
