FIGHTING LEUKEMIA IS TEAMS' PASSION `LIGHT THE NIGHT' FUNDRAISER PLANNED.

Byline: SUE DOYLE Staff Writer

VALENCIA -- When 16-year-old Sarah Weichel was diagnosed with cancer, doctors told her to let them worry about the disease and urged her to live life as usual.

So she did, despite aggressive chemotherapy treatments. The fair-haired teen danced at her prom, hung out with friends and went out at night like others her age.

But one morning, she woke up and found much of her hair on her pillow. Suddenly, her reality of the disease changed.

``I realized that day I was sick and I could die if I did not fight with all the strength I had,'' she said.

Today, the Hart High School junior is a cancer survivor, and on Wednesday she spoke at a kickoff fundraiser for blood cancer cures through the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Known as ``Light the Night Walk,'' the national event returns to Santa Clarita for the second year Oct. 15. Carrying balloons with lights, corporate teams, families and volunteers walk two miles around Bridgeport Park with this year's goal of raising $100,000, said Taly Fantini, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society director of special events.

Last year, about 800 people gathered at the park and raised $50,000.

This year's walk is the first for Sandi and Joe Franco and their 8-year-old son Mateo, who was diagnosed with leukemia in September. Nearly 35,000 people each year are diagnosed with the form of cancer that's characterized by an uncontrolled accumulation of white blood cells.

``It impacts every part of your life,'' Sandi Franco said. ``Every part of our life changed a year ago.''

The Newhall family will walk with at least 20 others on their team in October.

Wearing a button-sized picture of her 11-year-old grandson, Jonnie Lanners, who died three years ago from leukemia, Janet Snyder is on her sixth walk to raise money to find a cure.

The Santa Clarita grandmother grinned when she described the boy who was in and out of hospitals for three years and eventually established a toy charity for other kids there.

``I'm sad because I lost Jonnie. But if it (the walk) will prevent someone from going through what we did, that's what it's all about,'' she said.

Ana Butler's mother, Lillith Machado, was 73 when she died of myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells that annually strikes nearly 16,000 people, typically at age 67.

Machado was in the hospital for months before her diagnosis, with doctors bewildered by her symptoms.

By the time the disease was recognized, it was too late for treatment, said Butler, who is forming a team of her five siblings to walk in their mother's honor.

``I want to find a cure,'' she said. ``We have to carry on.''

For more information about the fundraiser, look at: www.lightthenight.org or call [phone].

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com

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(color) Leukemia patient Mateo Franco, 8, right, and his mother Sandi Franco of Newhall will take part in the "Light the Night" walk against Cancer on Oct. 15th at Bridgeport Park in Valencia. This year's fundraising goal for teams made up of corporate workers, families and volunteers is $100,000 toward finding a cure.

David Crane/Staff Photographer