MURPHYSBORO - Purple hair, glow sticks, wild cheers and some serious thoughts marked a kickoff Tuesday for Murphysboro's upcoming Relay for Life, planned for June 12 and 13. "Colors United in Hope" is the theme.

The kickoff was held at 17th Street Bar & Grill Warehouse and was designed to get teams started toward helping meet the $50,000 goal set for this year's relay, event chairman Brenda Nehring said. The temporarily purple hair signifies hope that cancer can be conquered, she said.

This year marks the 25th year of Relay for Life, which raises funds - and awareness - for the American Cancer Society. Nehring said it began with one doctor who ran all night by himself and managed to raise $27,000 for the ACS. It's now held in 5,000 communities nationwide and 19 other countries.

Sharon Jones, team mentor, encouraged teams to take part in fundraisers and other events leading up to the relay. These range from a "Taste of Hope" Feb. 24 with Murphysboro restaurants donating 20 percent of sales that night to the relay, to an entry in the Cardboard Regatta April 25 at SIUC Campus Lake. The boat's name, Jones said, will be "Hope Floats."

Speaker Larry Mittendorf first joined the Relay for Life last year, but is a 45-year survivor of cancer. Diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1964 during his senior year of dental school, he was given a 25 percent chance of survival. After surgery and radiation, the cancer appeared gone. But later that year, he said, doctors found "six tumors in one lung, seven in the other, and a big mass in between."

Chemotherapy, regarded by most doctors in the 60s as "witchcraft," saved his life, Mittendorf said. An experimental drug was used when he was given just a week and a half to live. It reduced 300 tumors to just one, he said.

The medical experience was horrible, Mittendorf acknowledged, but even worse was the feeling that he was absolutely alone in his battle with cancer. He's walking in the relay, and encourages other survivors to join him, because "I want folks to know they're not alone," he said.

Marcy Weber, his longtime friend, also stressed involvement in her talk. Sporting vivid magenta hair, Weber urged the audience to "get in their business" and remind friends and family to get a mammogram, wear sunscreen, stop smoking or whatever it takes to keep them healthy.

If a friend is afraid to undergo a colonoscopy, offer to go along with him or her them, Weber said. And buy them a calendar, she added, and mark dates for mammograms and monthly breast self-exams for them. It's OK to be pushy, she said, because it shows you care.

Because cancer affects the entire family, caregivers as well as survivors will be honored during the relay.

linda.rush@thesouthern.com / 618-351-5079

Relay for Life schedule

The 2009 Relay for Life schedule for Southern Illinois counties has been announced by the American Cancer Society. Unless otherwise noted, each relay will begin at 6 p.m. and run until 6 a.m. the following day.

The schedule, in chronological order, includes:

Jackson County: April 25 at Carbondale High School Bleyer Field.

Washington County: May 8 at Nashville High School.

Perry County: May 29 at Du Quoin State Fairground.

Randolph County: May 29 at Sparta Community Airport.

Massac County: May 29 at Metropolis High School.

Hardin/Pope counties: June 5 (5 p.m. to 5 a.m.) at Hardin County High School in Elizabethtown.

Wabash County: June 5 (7 p.m. to 7 a.m.) at Mount Carmel High School.

Jefferson County: June 5 at Mount Vernon Community Airport.

Hamilton County: June 5 at McLeansboro courthouse square.

Williamson County, Herrin: June 12, Herrin High School parking lot.

Marion County, Centralia: June 12 (6 p.m. to 8 a.m.) at Centralia Evers Field.

Jackson County, Murphysboro: June 12 at Murphysboro High School.

Saline/Gallatin counties: June 19 at Taylor Field, Harrisburg.

Union County: June 19 at Anna City Park/Fairground.

Franklin County: June 26 at West Frankfort City Park.

Williamson County, Marion: July 10 at Rent One Ballpark.

Johnson County: July 18 (5 p.m. to 5 a.m.) Vienna City Park.

- Information from ACS Illinois Division Southern Region

Relay for Life kickoff events

Relay for Life kickoff events already are under way in Southern Illinois as teams are preparing for the annual12-hour fundraising efforts coming in spring and summer in some 20 communities.

Kickoffs are scheduled Thursday in Randolph County (6:30 p.m. at St. Johns Lutheran Church in Sparta; Massac County (6:30 p.m. in the Metropolis Library); and Hardin/Pope Counties (5:30 p.m. at the Golden Circle in Golconda)

On Jan. 26, the Franklin County kickoff will be at 6:30 p.m. at the West Frankfort Aquatic Center.

Jan. 27 is the date of the Jefferson County kickoff at 5:30 p.m. in the Jefferson County Courthouse, Mount Vernon.

Jan. 29, Hamilton County's kickoff will be at 6 p.m. at St. Clements Catholic Church Hall in McLeansboro.

Feb. 5, Perry County kickoff will be at 6:30 p.m. at Klub Kahuna in Du Quoin.

Feb. 10 is the date of the Williamson County Herrin kickoff at 5:30 p.m., with site to be announced, and the Johnson County event at 5:30 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in Vienna.

Feb. 19 is the date of the Union County kickoff, at 6 p.m. in Anna Heights Baptist Church.

Some communities already have had their kickoffs, including Carbondale, Murphysboro, Marion, Washington County, and Saline/Gallatin Counties.

- Information from American Cancer Society, Illinois Division