A volunteer passion project. This site is designed and maintained solely by volunteers. It is not an official publication of the American Cancer Society. Questions about the site? Please contact the volunteer team.
This is a volunteer-built site with no analytics and no cookies. The only personal details it ever handles are the ones you choose to send with a story. Here is the full picture.
Updated September 22, 2026 (when the letter builders, the Relay songs, the events directory, the story form, the newsletter archive, the Luminaria Garden, the Global Cancer Quiz and two games moved here from globalheroesofhope.com).
Only what you choose to send. The story form asks for your story, your name and your email address, and any photos or links you choose to add. The Luminaria Garden keeps the name and words you write on a bag, and shows them to everyone who visits the garden, because that is what the garden is for. The Global Cancer Quiz asks for a name, which appears with your score on its public leaderboard; a first name is enough, and it never asks for an email. Nothing else on the site asks for anything about you. There are no public accounts, comments or newsletter sign-ups. We run no analytics of any kind, so we do not know how many people visit or where they come from.
The letter builders have boxes to fill in too, but what you type there stays on your device. It is never sent to us or to anyone else.
The Story Library, where the team reads and edits stories, is a private page. Team members sign in to it with a Google account, and Google handles that sign-in. Visitors never need an account.
No cookies. A few things are kept in your browser's own storage, on your device only, so you do not lose your work:
None of this is sent to us. Your browser settings can clear it at any time.
The local times shown on the homepage are calculated inside your browser from your device's clock. Your time zone is used only to highlight the card that matches it. It is never sent anywhere.
| Provider | What for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Netlify | Hosts the site's files | United States |
| Google Fonts | Serves the typefaces | Global network |
| Google Firebase | Keeps the stories sent through the form, the bags in the Luminaria Garden and the quiz leaderboard, shows published stories and newsletters, and signs team members in | United States |
| cdnjs (Cloudflare) | Serves two helper programs that the newsletter page loads to make its Download PDF file | Global network |
| YouTube | Plays a video, only after you press play (privacy-enhanced player) | United States |
Video previews are pictures stored on this site. YouTube is contacted only when you press play, and then YouTube's own privacy policy applies to that video.
Like any web host, Netlify and Google may see your IP address when your browser asks them for a file, or when the Stories page and the newsletter archive ask Firebase for the newest stories and issues. We do not receive or keep that information.
Some tools linked from this site still live on globalheroesofhope.com, which has its own privacy policy. Links to national cancer organisations and social networks lead to sites with their own policies.
The Global Relay Track is built and maintained by Relay For Life volunteers connected to the Global Heroes of Hope. It is not an official American Cancer Society publication. Questions: use the contact form.
If we ever add analytics, or start collecting anything new, this page will change first and the date at the top will move.
