Couple battle cancer together.

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

See them walk hand-in-hand. See the way they look at each other, the way they touch each other.

They say all you need is love, and nothing could be more true for Hank and Stacie Sisk of Cottage Grove.

"A hugely amount," says Hank Sisk, a 40-year-old producer of television commercials in Eugene, when asked if the strength he gathers from his 20-month marriage to Stacie has helped him fight his gastrointestinal cancer. Doctors estimated he had six months to live when his cancer was diagnosed in 2003.

"They say that if you're happy, you're healthier," says Stacie Sisk, whose breast cancer was diagnosed in January.

What are the odds that a man and a woman would fall in love in their 30s, while he was battling an extremely rare form of cancer, not knowing how much time they'd have together, and then she would develop cancer herself?

Doctors at the Willamette Valley Cancer Center in Springfield, where both Hank and Stacie receive their chemotherapy treatments in the same chair, say they've never seen such a thing before, Hank Sisk says. They've seen fathers and sons diagnosed around the same time, brothers, sisters, etc. But not this, not a new bride and groom in the prime of their lives.

So who better to serve as ambassadors for the 15th annual American Cancer Society's Relay for Life of Eugene-Springfield that begins at noon today at Lane Community College and goes until noon Saturday?

"It all just kind of fell into place," Stacie Sisk says. "This is where we are, this is what we're supposed to do."

The event began in Tacoma in 1985 and is now held in thousands of cities across America, and in others around the world, to raise money to find a cure for cancer and for educational programs and prevention. The Eugene-Springfield event began in 1992 at the University of Oregon and moved in 2003 to LCC, where organizers say it has grown into one of the most successful cancer relays on the West Coast.

"And that's just incredible," says Marc Toy, a spokesman for the Eugene office of the American Cancer Society. "You're talking about beating out cities like Portland and Seattle."

While that first Eugene event raised $11,028, last year's relay collected $530,000. This year's goal is $555,000. The total raised during the past 14 events in Eugene is $3,144,991, according to figures provided by the American Cancer Society. About 175 teams, many consisting of employees from area businesses, are registered for this year's relay.

"This is one disease that affects everybody," says Jeanne Havercroft, who started the Eugene Relay for Life in 1992 with her friend Mary Hudzikiewicz, past president of the Eugene chapter of the ACS. Two years later, Havercroft was found to have breast cancer herself.

"(This event) is going to go on and on, and I don't think people thought it would go 10 years," says Havercroft, whose husband, Bob Havercroft, died of cancer in 1994, the same year Jeanne's cancer was diagnosed.

The Sisks have never participated in the relay before. Stacie Sisk, who works for Eugene mortgage broker The Lending Team, already has had four surgeries to remove her cancer. She was at a networking meeting for area businesswomen this spring when a business partner introduced her to the group and talked of her brave fight against breast cancer. Also at the meeting was someone from the Eugene ACS office.

One thing led to another and Tinker Flom, community relationship manager for the ACS in Eugene, invited Stacie and Hank to be this year's ambassadors at the Relay for Life and share their powerful story.

"We wanted to help people, that's the biggest thing," says Hank, who has appendiatic cancer - so rare he's only heard of three others in Oregon who have it - three years ago.

Hank and Stacie, who have been friends for 10 years but did not start dating until both became divorced, have three daughters - Alex, 12, Marissa, 6, and Haley, 4 - from their first marriages. The children will walk with them at the relay, assuming Stacie is able to do so.

She's scheduled to undergo her fifth chemotherapy treatment today.

"We're hoping the reaction she has isn't so severe that she can't come out," Hank Sisk says.

Hank's cancer was so prevalent throughout his abdomen a couple of years ago that he could not find a surgeon willing to operate. That is until a friend's wife, a surgical nurse, recommended Dr. David DeHaas of Eugene.

DeHaas told Hank, who was then wearing a morphine patch 24 hours a day because of the pain, that surgery would be risky, but he thought he could remove much of the cancer that was causing the pain and "stabilize" it.

DeHaas removed five pounds of cancerous tissue from Hank's abdomen.

"I am so fortunate to be alive ...' Hank says.

And to be in love.

AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY RELAY FOR LIFE

What: 15th annual 24-hour fund-raiser for medical research, celebration of cancer survivors and a commemoration of those who have died

When: Noon today to noon Saturday; Survivor Celebration Lap begins after 6 p.m. opening ceremonies (anyone who has survived cancer is encouraged to show up and walk)

Where: Lane Community College track, 4000 E. 30th Ave.

To donate: Make checks payable to American Cancer Society, Attn: Eugene Relay, 2350 Oakmont Way, Suite 200, Eugene, OR 97401.

For more information: Go online at www.ascevents.org/relay/or/eugene (there will also be an online silent auction before the relay at www.relayauction.com)

Other relays: Florence will hold its relay Aug. 18-19. Call 997-7088 for more information. Visit www.cancer.org or call (800) ACS-2345 to learn more.