Hope is the word

POST FALLS - Kelsi Cruse won't ever forget her 21st birthday. It was then she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. But Friday, the 27-year-old was smiling, laughing and standing strong against the cancer that threatened her life. "I'm feeling wonderful," Cruse said. "Better than ever."

POST FALLS - Kelsi Cruse won't ever forget her 21st birthday.

It was then she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.

But Friday, the 27-year-old was smiling, laughing and standing strong against the cancer that threatened her life.

"I'm feeling wonderful," Cruse said. "Better than ever."

The Coeur d'Alene woman joined hundreds of other cancer survivors in the first lap around the track during the Relay for Life at the Greyhound Park and Event Center.

"It's a great time to get together with all these other people who have fought their way through it and have earned these purple shirts," she said.

With the song "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang blaring in the background, the 18-hour event began at 6 p.m. on a cool spring evening under blue skies. Entertainment and games, along with volunteers and team members, promised to keep the American Cancer Society fundraiser upbeat throughout the night.

Spirits were especially high during the opening ceremonies.

"Yay, Mary," yelled her friends Tonie Reiboldt, Michelle Jurgens and Becky Simon as they held a banner that read, "Team I Will Survive."

Mary Dougall of Coeur d'Alene, sporting purple gloves that cancer survivors wore as a mark of unity, waved back and grinned.

"There's some great food over there," she shouted back with a laugh.

Lori Cogley of Hayden was part of the Keebler Elves team and was taking part in Relay for Life for the first time.

Her mother-in-law died of breast cancer and her father is a survivor of prostate cancer.

"This is truly an awesome thing that they do," she said. "Everybody pulls together. It looks like we're going to have fun and have a great night."

Event co-chair Suzanna Spencer asked for God's guidance during an opening prayer.

"Give strength to those who have lost someone to cancer. Give strength to those that will walk through the night in the fight against cancer," she said, head bowed.

"Strengthen us when we stand, comfort us when discouraged or sorrowful. Raise us up if we fall."

Susan Hilditch of Liberty Lake needed a walker to make it around the track.

The 57-year-old has been fighting lung cancer since 2006, and learned in December it had metastasized to her brain. She said she never smoked a cigarette in her life, and added that doctors aren't sure what caused her cancer.

With "Team SusanStrong" cheering her on and wearing colorful cupcake hats as part of their theme, she was hopeful a new procedure to radiate the lesions in her brain would succeed.

"I just keep living each day and hope that there's new ideas out there every day," she said.

The lesions have affected the left side of her body, made it difficult for her to walk and forced her to give up her job. Still, by using a walker, the determined Hilditch pushed slowly ahead, steadfast the future held good days for her.

"It's amazing, each year, to come and see that there's new technology and new things coming out all the time," she said.

Catherine Ziegler of Coeur d'Alene was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1979. Friday, the warmth of the sun and the support of friends and family saw her circling the track in a motorized wheelchair.

Cancer, she said, has made life difficult.

"It's hard to operate normally like normal people do," the 58-year-old said. "There's always a challenge and some kind of hardship."

Still, if the Relay for Life has given her anything, she said, it is hope.

"H-O-P-E," she said, spelling out the word. "And a camaraderie, a wonderful feeling of togetherness and cooperation."

Since her husband, Ezra, was volunteering in the relay's massage room, Ziegler planned to cover as many laps as she could.

"I'm going for it," she said, then adding with a laugh, "until the battery runs out."