Teams fight cancer

NEWPORT BEACH — Newport Beach Fire Department engineer Rian McDonough is attempting this weekend to walk as many hours as his feet will carry him around the track of Newport Harbor High School.

McDonough joined hundreds of people on 43 teams at the Relay for Life event, which benefits the American Cancer Society.

“It’s just a great event the Fire Department can get involved in,” said McDonough, who frequented the Newport Harbor field when he played football for the school. “It benefits cancer research, and I think it’s great for everything and everybody.”

Last year McDonough said he walked about 10 hours around the track — others at the Fire Department said he walked six or eight more than that — and he’s hoping to break his record this year.

The 24-hour event started at 10 a.m. Saturday with the first lap taken by cancer survivors, including Larry Johnson and his “main squeeze,” Gayla Bray of Long Beach.

“I think this is much better than being on the wrong side of the grass,” Johnson said as he sat in the shade with friends and family Saturday.

Johnson was diagnosed with leukemia last June. In January, he received a stem cell transplant at UCLA using “spare parts” from his identical twin.

Bray is a six-year survivor of breast cancer, and the pair was part of the Scheeff Family and Friends team.

Richard and Vera Scheeff of Westchester provided moral support to their daughter-in-law when she was diagnosed with leukemia in 1999. She is now doing very well, they reported.

Their teammate Lisa Dunning of Laguna Niguel has known the Scheeff family since she was a little girl, and on Saturday they were also celebrating the memory of Dunning’s mother, who died 10 years ago on Mother’s Day of breast cancer.

The American Cancer Society estimates that almost 55,000 Californians will die of some type of cancer this year.

To watch a video of the Relay for Life click here