For 11 years now, they’ve worked to raise money to battle the most dreaded disease in our lifetime.

And in no year, save for possibly the first, have the organizers of the East Wake Relay For Life faced as many hurdles as they had to clear this year.

Rainfall, heavy at times, dampened the start of this year’s Relay forcing some likely supporters to miss this year’s event.

And the event was held at Five County Stadium, the first year it was not held at East Wake High School.

That change, as has been documented on the news pages of this newspaper in recent months, came as county school officials enforced rules seemingly designed to keep the community from using its community schools.

The change meant organizers spent a lot of time taking care of details they had long ago ironed out in their previous location.

That was time and energy spent doing things other than raising money to support cancer research.

Through it all, this year’s Relay For Life raised more than $142,000.

That’s short of the ambitious $200,000 goal event chairperson Dianna Scoggins set for this year.

To our way of thinking, that number represents a victory in itself.

Thanks to the efforts of people from all over eastern Wake County and our neighbors just over the border in Johnston, Franklin and Nash counties, research will continue to draw closer to finding a cure for cancer.

And cancer patients will be comforted by the resources made available by the American Cancer Society.

Perhaps most importantly, the families of cancer patients will continue to find resources that help them understand and cope with the illness that has befallen a loved one.

East Wake’s 2008 Relay For Life was one for the books for a great many reasons.

We believe the greatest of those is the compassion and the passion that people in our neck of the woods continue to show in the face of awesome odds to beat back a dreaded disease and support those they care about.