What it is, what it is not, who makes it, and where everything on it came from.
What this is
The Global Relay Track is a home for the worldwide Relay For Life family: the people who Relay, the people who work on it, the reporters who cover it, and anyone who wants to know why we stay on the track all night. It is built by Relay volunteers, in plain English, for readers in every country where Relay happens.
It grows a little every month. Most of what is here started as a question in a Relay community group and an answer from someone who had been there.
What it is not
Not an official American Cancer Society publication. Relay For Life is a programme of the American Cancer Society, shared with 36 partner cancer organisations. This site is made by people who take part in it, not by the organisations that run it.
Not a replacement for your organisation's guidance. Every partner has its own rules for money, ceremonies, brand, and safety. Where this site and your organisation disagree, your organisation is right.
Not a place that takes anything from you. No registrations, no donations, no accounts, no forms, no cookies, no analytics. The privacy page says so in full.
You can link to any page here from your own site, newsletter, or team meeting. Nothing needs permission.
Who makes it
The Global Relay For Life volunteer team: Relayers, cancer survivors, and caregivers from several countries who work with the Global Heroes of Hope programme. Nobody is paid, and the site has no budget beyond the time people give it.
Attributions
Everything on this site came from somewhere, and this is where we say so.
Photographs
Homepage, the three words: survivors in Trinidad & Tobago by Marsha Daniel-Joseph; a luminaria track at Relais pour la Vie 2026 by Mari-Liis Haliik for Fondation Cancer, Luxembourg; a radio interview in Zambia by Chola Bweupe.
Homepage, the world: Hasselt, Belgium by Cindy Menache; Trinidad & Tobago by Marsha Daniel-Joseph; a campsite and the sunrise picture in the United Kingdom by Karen Langton; Zambia by Chola Bweupe; Kenya by Carol Kareri; Japan by Kazuo Kubota.
The photographs by Global Heroes of Hope were shared with the programme for its use and are credited where they appear. Partner-organisation photographs are used with credit to the organisation. Please do not reuse any of them without asking.
Films
"One year of Relay, around the world" and "Remembering Thelma Suson" are films by Global Relay For Life, played from YouTube only when you press play.
Answers, stories, and templates
The Answers pages were gathered in September 2026 from hundreds of replies in two Relay community groups on Facebook, the Global Relay For Life Community and the ACS Relay For Life Community, then rewritten in plain words. No one is named without their permission, and nothing is quoted word for word. The ideas belong to the people who shared them.
The comeback story from Naestved, Denmark is told with the permission of Henrik Meisner Michaelsen. The printable candle bags are the work of Charlotte Willcocks.
The twelve stories on the Stories page were reported by the partner cancer organisations named on each one and shared with Global Relay For Life. The words are theirs; the photographs came with the stories.
The templates were written for this site and may be copied, changed, and used by any Relay anywhere.
The list of countries where Relay happens comes from Global Relay For Life at the American Cancer Society.
Songs
"Every Candle Has a Name" is by Tom Willner and "Relay For Life" is by Jon Christopher Davis. The other songs on the ceremonies page belong to their artists and are listed as suggestions; check public-performance rights where you are.
The site itself
Typefaces: Fraunces, Outfit, and Source Sans 3, served by Google Fonts. Hosting by Netlify. The turning globe is drawn from Natural Earth public-domain map data.
The Relay For Life name and logo belong to the American Cancer Society and are used to identify the programme this site is about.
Add to it
If your Relay has a story, a ceremony script, a fundraising idea, a national rule other Relayers should know, or a correction, send it. It goes up with your name or your organisation credited, the way you ask for it to be credited. The best pages on this site are the ones that came from a track somewhere in the world.
