UCLA’s eighth Relay for Life will educate about cancer through games, attempt at world record

Claudia Lam was in sixth grade when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Two surgical procedures and 11 years later, Lam’s mother is a cancer survivor.

The fourth-year physiological science student is now the president of the American Cancer Society’s Colleges Against Cancer at UCLA, but when she was younger, she couldn’t comprehend the extent of her mother’s troubles.

Lam cited her mother’s struggle with cancer as motivation to join Colleges Against Cancer and help educate people about the disease. She is one of the organizers of UCLA’s eighth Relay For Life, a 24-hour event where participants walk around the track at Drake Stadium to raise money for cancer research.

This year, students will do more than raise money for cancer. Relay participants will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the greatest number of people applying sunscreen at the same time. The current record is 251 people applying sunscreen for two minutes, and more than 1,500 students have signed up for this weekend.

Organizers wanted to find engaging ways to educate participants and others about different kinds of cancer, said third-year political science student and Colleges Against Cancer member Theresa Gio.

This is how the idea came about to break the sunscreen application record, Gio said. After the opening ceremony, people will be provided sunscreen, and later in the afternoon, cancer advocacy groups will talk about skin cancer and ways to avoid it.

There will also be other carnival-like games to provide a break and increase cancer education, Gio said.

Activities will include a “protect your balls” dodgeball tournament for testicular cancer and “eating brownie goop” to simulate tar in the lungs from lung cancer, she said.

“I think it makes … more people want to get involved if there are more activities than just walking the track,” said second-year psychology student Rebeca Poore.