Marie Nix & Her Team
T
Marie Nix: CancerWarrior
by Art Sbarsky
he ninth annual Weston Relay For Life event will be held April 16th & 17th
at Cypress Bay High School. Community-based Relay events take place
in thousands of communities to raise funds for the American Cancer
Society. It’s ACS’s signature fundraising event having started in 1985.
We’ve been doing it here in Weston since 2002 and we have been
quite successful. Last year we were the largest fundraising event in
Broward County and 15th overall in the state of Florida, out of more than
three hundred and fifty local events
Everyone Relays for a different reason. Marie Nix, leader of her team,
“V&M Cancer Warriors” says, “We relay to make a difference...to
help with awareness...for a cure....to remember those we have lost
and to praise each survivor.” Marie’s team will be back this year for
their second year of participation. They were the “Rookie of the Year”
team last year, raising a significant amount, contributing to the overall
financial success of the event.
The way in which they developed as a Relay team is a great story. Marie
relates, “We are a group of women who meet for dinner once a month
with a heart to make difference. Each year we would choose a cause
with the hope of helping our community. Then one of group members
passed away as a result of cancer, Ms. Mary Anne DeSouza. From that
day forward we knew what our cause would be. In Mary’s memory our
energy would go into raising money for the fight against cancer. We still
meet every month in Mary’s favorite restaurant to plan our raise funding
ideas. As we formed our ideas to raise money our conversations made us
aware how many people we know that we lost to cancer and how many
have won the fight against this horrible disease.”
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Last year, when making a significant donation to the American Cancer
Society, Marie met with the leaders of the Weston RFL event, Ross Sabath
and Joy Medrano. After learning more about Relay they decided to join
Weston, make the donation part of the Relay event and have her “V&M
Cancer Warriors” team participate at the 2010 event.
Marie remembers, “Our friend Mary could still be with us today if she
would have detected her disease early. It took the death of my mother
for me to do a self exam....find a lump...go to the doctor...from there
the road to recovery with my mother as my guardian angel and with
the love of my husband Vern to give me the strength to win the fight
against cancer.”
Marie has lived in Southwest Ranches for seven years with other team
members living in the Southwest Broward area, Amsterdam, Colorado
and Texas. Maries says, “Our captains are so devoted, putting in
many hours of work; Zoila, Chrissy, Linda, Lisa, Ronnie, Toby and
top fund raiser Ginger help to make each event a success. Working
hard towards our goal are our daughter Rachel, sons Jeff and Mike,
daughter-in-law Ricki; our grandson Chad at eight years old was able
to raise almost three hundred dollars.”
For more detailed information regarding Relay For Life of Weston,
please contact Ross Sabath, Event Chair, at 954-309-6321 or
[email protected]. You can also visit www.relayforlife.
org/westonfl and join the facebook group Weston Relay For Life. For
more information on cancer, call the American Cancer Society at 1-800ACS-2345, available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, or
visit www.cancer.org. LM
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