A team event that lasts through the night, run by cancer organisations in 36 countries on six continents. Here is how it works, in plain words.
How it started
In 1985, a surgeon named Dr. Gordy Klatt walked and ran around a track in Tacoma, Washington, for 24 hours. Friends paid to walk with him. He raised money for the American Cancer Society, and the next year he brought teams. That was the first Relay For Life.
Today the American Cancer Society shares Relay For Life with national cancer organisations around the world. Each one runs Relay its own way, in its own language, for its own community. The three words at the heart of it never change.
Celebrate
A Relay opens with a lap for cancer survivors. Everyone else lines the track and cheers. Caregivers often walk the next lap, because nobody goes through cancer alone. This is the joyful part of Relay.
Remember
After dark, the lights go off. Paper bags with candles inside, called luminaria in many countries and candle bags in others, light the whole track. Each one carries a name. People walk in silence. Then, slowly, the music comes back and the laps continue.
Cancer never sleeps. That is why Relay lasts through the night.
Fight Back
Every team raises money before and during the event. The money goes to the cancer organisation in that country, for research, patient support, and prevention. Many Relays also give people a place to sign up for screening, learn about healthy habits, or promise to do one thing that fights cancer.
What a Relay night looks like
Teams of friends, colleagues, students, or families each keep one person on the track at all times.
Campsites around the track, where teams eat, rest, and often run small fundraisers.
Themed laps through the night to keep people moving: a costume lap, a silent lap, a dance lap.
A closing ceremony at sunrise, when everyone walks the last lap together.
Relay words
Every Relay has its own language. Here are the words you will hear most, in plain English, in five short groups. Where a country uses a different word, we say so.
The event
Relay For Life
A community fundraising event for a cancer organisation. Teams keep one member on a track at all times, usually overnight, while the community celebrates survivors, remembers people lost to cancer, and raises money to fight the disease. Always written with a capital R and capital F, capital L.
Relayer
Anyone who takes part in Relay For Life. Also written with a capital R.
Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back
The three words every Relay is built on: celebrate survivors, remember people lost to cancer, and fight back against the disease.
Team
A group of friends, colleagues, students, or family members who Relay together. A team raises money before the event and keeps one person on the track through the night.
Campsite
A team's base beside the track, often a tent, decorated to the team's theme. Teams eat, rest, and run small fundraisers there.
Theme
A playful idea that runs through a Relay: a decade, a film, a journey around the world. Teams decorate their campsites to it. Many Relays change the theme every year.
Themed laps
Short laps through the night with a twist, to keep people on the track: a costume lap, a silent lap, a dance lap, a pyjama lap.
Lap beads
A cord bought at the start of the event, with one bead added for every lap walked. A fundraiser and a way to count laps.
Sponsor
A business or organisation that gives money or goods to the Relay. Sponsors are usually thanked with a sign beside the track.
Mission moment
A short story or fact shared from the stage during the event to remind everyone what the money does.
The people
Survivor
At Relay, a person is a cancer survivor from the day of diagnosis, not only after treatment ends.
Caregiver
Anyone who cared for a person with cancer: a partner, a parent, a child, a friend, a nurse. Caregivers are honoured at Relay alongside survivors. In some countries the word is carer.
Team captain
The person who leads a team: signs it up, keeps the members informed, and organises the team's fundraising.
Committee
The people who plan and run the Relay. In the United States it is called the event leadership team, or ELT.
The person from your cancer organisation
Most Relays have a staff member at the national cancer organisation who supports them: registration, money handling, rules, materials. In the United States this person is called the staff partner.
Global Heroes of Hope
Cancer survivors and caregivers recognised each year by their national cancer organisations for extraordinary work in Relay For Life. They speak at events around the world.
The ceremonies
Survivor lap
The first lap of the Relay, walked by survivors while everyone else lines the track and cheers. Caregivers usually walk the next lap, or join the survivors for it.
Luminaria
Paper bags with a candle or light inside, each carrying the name of a person touched by cancer. Lit after dark around the whole track. In many countries they are called candle bags.
Luminaria Ceremony
The moment after dark when the lights go off, the luminaria are lit, and everyone walks a lap in silence. Every Relay in the world shares it.
Fight Back ceremony
A moment, often at the closing, when everyone promises to do one thing that fights cancer: get screened, quit smoking, bring someone to next year's Relay.
Closing ceremony
The last part of the Relay. The total is announced, teams are thanked, and everyone walks a final lap together.
The calendar
Kickoff
The meeting or party that opens a Relay season, usually months before the event. Teams sign up, the theme is announced, and the first fundraising begins.
Feeder event
A small fundraiser held before the Relay, such as a bake sale or a quiz night, that raises money and keeps the Relay in people's minds.
Paint the town purple
The week before a Relay when a community decorates its shops, windows, and streets in purple to announce the event.
Wrap-up
The meeting or dinner after the Relay where the committee thanks everyone, hands out awards, and begins planning the next one.
Relay First Lap
A worldwide tradition on the second Saturday of January. Relayers walk one lap wherever they are, to open the Relay year together.
The wider Relay world
Bark For Life
A Relay for dogs and the people who love them, held by some communities as a separate event.
Youth Relay, Campus Relay
A Relay run by students at a school or university. In many countries young people are the fastest-growing part of Relay.
Global Relay For Life
The American Cancer Society programme that shares Relay For Life with cancer organisations in other countries, 36 of them today.
Partner organisation
The national cancer organisation that runs Relay For Life in its own country, in its own language, and keeps the money raised there.
