Hugging his parents, MSU Student Cancer Support Network student coordinator Jeremy Koenemann fought back emotions after looking at hundreds of luminaries honoring cancer patients at the MSU's Relay for Life.
Luminary bags with the names of people who have battled cancer were lit to honor those people.
"Everyone has been affected by cancer in some way," he said.
Koenemann attended the American Cancer Society fund-raiser Saturday with the MSU Student Cancer Support Network - a group that offers support to students who have either had cancer or have known someone with cancer.
At the relay, the network's presence served as a wake-up call to how real the disease is on campus, said Relay for Life event chairwoman and political science and pre-law senior Dana Dzwonkowski. The event raised at least $52,000, she said.
At the event, people who have battled cancer wore shirts with the word "survivor" on them.
"The 'survivor' on those shirts is a reminder that this is not just an old person's disease," Dzwonkowski said.
Koenemann, a computer science and engineering junior, spent the summer before his freshman year at MSU battling testicular cancer. He found out he was sick just one day before orientation and had surgery the day after, he said.
Koenemann struggled to have a "normal" college experience while secretly changing the dressings on his incision.
In the network, he said he found an unexpected group of friends who he could talk to about cancer, but who he could laugh with, too.
"It defines you as a person," Koenemann said. "You say you're having a hard time and they don't have to ask why."
Graduate student Sherri Goings' father died of lung cancer in January. At meetings, she found people to talk with who understood her situation and could give her ideas of what she needed to say before her father died.
"I was able to tell him that I was going to be OK," she said.
Network members are able to relate to each other's struggles with cancer, said network facilitator and MSU alumna Laura Boutni, who went into remission for cancer eight years ago.
The group's facilitated meetings are held about once a month, but it also meets to volunteer with child cancer patients in Lansing, Boutni said. The next meeting is at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Union.
Minutes after the emotional luminary ceremony at Relay For Life, Koenemann and other network members were laughing.
"One minute everyone is crying and then the next second, we're cracking up and laughing," Boutni said. "When you're staring death in the face...you're living each moment and enjoying life.
