MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII -- KAILUA, Hawaii — With the track at Kailua High School slick with mud puddles, the air, hot and muggy, a crowd cheered cancer survivors in purple shirts as they took the traditional Survivor’s Victory Lap at the annual Relay For Life of windward Oahu, Saturday. At the very front of the group, just behind two members of Celtic Pipes and Drums of Hawaii, was the event’s youngest survivor, 4-year-old Nahla Nepaulsingh. Her father, Staff Sgt. Jonathan Nepaulsingh, followed the crowd, photographing each moment with his phone.
“It touched me,” said the 620 Work Center staff noncommissioned officer in charge with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 24. “(I felt a) warm, tender feeling seeing my baby out there. She’s strong. It gives me and (my) wife strength.”
Last September, Nahla had recurring fevers reaching as high as 106.4 degrees. At the hospital, doctors performed a lumbar puncture on her spine and diagnosed her with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She underwent surgery to place a port in her chest through which she began receiving chemotherapy. Nepaulsingh said the biggest challenge for the family was seeing his daughter upset.
“Just seeing her in the hospital, the pictures of her laid up, doctors poking her and her crying for us, that’s the biggest kind of heartache (I) know,” Nepaulsingh said. “You can’t really do anything about it. It definitely hit us hard.”
Today, her blood appears to be free of the leukemia, but she will continue to receive preventative chemotherapy until November 2016. The family put together a team for Relay For Life, “Nahla’s Journey,” raising money and volunteering for the event. Nepaulsingh called the experience volunteering with Relay for Life “awesome,” people who were going through the same experiences, and knew he was not alone. He said a lot of his co-workers and base personnel supported his daughter.
Nepaulsingh wasn’t the only one from Marine Corps Base Hawaii supporting the event. Volunteers from Marine Corps Community Services, 3rd Marine Regiment, Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 367, Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3 and Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 24 helped with various tasks, from setting up tables and tents to manning registration and check-in.
Crystal Brookover, the information and referral specialist with Marine and Family Programs, created her team, “Hawaii Cure-O,” and put out a call on base for volunteers. Brookover personally knew an Air Force veteran who succumbed to cancer just a month after retiring from active duty.
“Cancer is something that touches a lot of people,” Brookover said. “(The service members) really put in a lot of impressive work. They honor the uniform that they wear. It really makes me proud to work on the base.”
Staff members at the Education Center also created a team called “Loretta’s Legacy,” in honor of Loretta Cornett-Huff, who served as the base education services officer for many years before she passed away June 20, 2013.
In addition to the volunteers, even the event staff had a member of the base community in its midst. Mokapu Elementary School teacher Tricia Adams, an area coordinator for ACS, volunteers for the society and is a cancer survivor.
“(The) American Cancer Society is so blessed that you are here supporting the cause and the fight against cancer,” Adams said. “I started when I was in high school (and) didn’t realize that I would be relaying for myself a dozen years later, and it’s just amazing to be here. Thank you so much. My heart is full to see all of you here. I just want you to look at our smallest and youngest hero today, Nahla, and know this is why we’re here.”
The windward Oahu community had a total of 39 teams who raised more than $68,000 for ACS this year.
Relay For Life originated in Tacoma, Wash., by Dr. Gordon Klatt in 1985. Klatt, who had been fighting stomach cancer, passed away last year of heart failure. The first event raised $27,000 in support of cancer treatment and research. For more information about Relay for Life, visit acs.org.