KAILUA-KONA — Laau Tuata has handled logistics for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life Kona for more than 20 years. At this year’s event, the 22nd of its kind in Kona, he’ll walk for a cure as part of
KAILUA-KONA — Laau Tuata has handled logistics for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life Kona for more than 20 years. At this year’s event, the 22nd of its kind in Kona, he’ll walk for a cure as part of the relay’s honorary first lap — the survivor’s revolution — as he has so many times before.
The steps Tuata will take July 9-10 from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Old Kona Airport Baseball Park represent a triumph over cancer that current cancer patients and their families hope to someday share.
“It’s one of my favorite parts of the relay,” said Cheryl Levitz, who has operated as the event lead for the past three years. “You look at all those people who have beaten cancer, and it’s just a wonderful sight.”
A married father of three, Tuata was only 33-years-old when he was admitted to the hospital in 1994 with a searing, unrelenting pain boiling feverishly in his gut.
Tuata first was misdiagnosed with appendicitis and spent a week laid up in a hospital bed after unnecessary surgery. He swallowed antibiotics by the handful during subsequent weeks, but they failed to quell his pain in the slightest.
Finally, after multiple surgeries and several months of extreme discomfort and uncertainty, Tuata received the devastating diagnosis: Cancer. The same diagnosis that, according to the National Cancer Institute, will haunt nearly 1.7 million Americans and their families in 2016 and claim almost 600,000 lives.
“It was very hard,” Tuata said. “I couldn’t work. My wife had to quit her job just to take care of me. My kids at the time, they were still young. They had to go to school. We didn’t have any (money) coming in. The sad part about it, I couldn’t find no help.”
Tuata acknowledged a handful of friends and family, who cooked food and dropped off holiday gifts for the family, among other kindnesses. Beyond that, the American Cancer Society was his only financial advocate, providing him airfare for several trips back and forth to Honolulu for surgery and treatment.
Doctors eventually removed a malignant tumor the size of a tennis ball from Tuata’s pelvis, but the cancer had already spread to his bladder.
It was five surgeries including one for complications and damage to his small intestine, weeks of intensive chemo and radiation therapy and substantial weight loss before Tuata could conceive of a positive conclusion to his life’s most traumatic ordeal. But finally, his doctors told him he was in the clear.
Once healthy, Tuata wasted little time extending his hand to the American Cancer Society, aiding in efforts to help those about to wake up to the terrifying realization that cancer had invaded their bodies and their lives.
“I heard about Relay For Life when I was doing all this treatment,” Tuata said. “The American Cancer Society were the only people helping me at that time. My thing now is to give back to them.”
Tuata is part of a group of several volunteers who stage the Relay For Life Kona in concert with the American Cancer Society.
Together, they create a track at the baseball field, bordered on the edges by relay teams ranging from five to as many as 20 participants. Among the 26 teams registered this year are groups from the Hawaii Community Credit Union, Target and Kaiser Permanente.
Teams raise funds leading up to the event, then spend the evening walking for a cure. One member of each team must be on the track at all times, but the rest are free to play games, enjoy food or participate in the silent auction at the center of the baseball field, which is lit by candles secured in sand-filled luminarias that light the event after sunset.
The luminarias are part of the fundraising efforts, each one lit in remembrance of a loved one lost to the disease.
Sancie De Mattos, a staff member at the American Cancer Society and community manager for Saturday’s relay, said the event is one of the largest fundraising efforts across the country.
“It’s a really important event to raise funds so we can continue in the fight against cancer for research and patient services,” De Mattos said. “All these funds raised will help to continue those programs.”
Last year, between 500 and 700 volunteers, team members and citizens showed up to participate in the relay in same fashion or another, raising more than $90,000 for the cause.
Still, Tuata is disappointed with the amount of overall community involvement in the event, saying it should be a priority for everyone considering the length of cancer’s reach.
Based on data from assembled by the National Cancer Institute between 2010-2012, nearly 40 percent of all people will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives.
“The people in this community don’t take this event seriously (enough),” said Tuata, whose entire family now helps with the relay. “But one day, cancer is going to hit you. Maybe it’s not going to be you, but someone you love so much. It might be your kids, your mom or your dad, your brother or sister. You never know. That’s my message.”
