Cancer gave Pat Rannow and her husband Arvid a one-two punch in 2009, but the Maple Valley couple has been fighting back and nowhere was that more evident than June 25 during the Relay for Life fundraiser at Tahoma Junior High.

Last year the Rannows were each battling cancer, Pat trying to overcome breast cancer while Arvid was fighting off prostate cancer, but things are looking up.

“The last year has been really good,” Pat Rannow said. “Arvid and I have been getting clean reports.”

A year ago, Rannow covered her head with a scarf, but this year she has a lovely head of hair and a pep in her step to boot.

She has become very involved in Relay for Life, participating with the MultiCare team, generating money by selling cook books, aprons, stuffed monkeys and popcorn at MultiCare on Fridays.

“She’s been raising so much money,” said Valerie Lyon, a member of the city of Covington’s team and one of the members of the organizing committee.

Lyon should know. She was the top individual fundraiser while Rannow was third as of Friday afternoon.

Rannow said she figured her team was going to come close to raising $10,000.

“To me it wasn’t as busy or stressful as last year,” she said. “I was trying to do too much (in 2009) right after my chemo. We’ve done less… but raised more. Everything we did was such a big success.”

This year there were more than 150 participants and 20 teams that raised more than $34,000 before the event had even started.

A Good Mix, led by mother-daughter duo Glenda Fredreckson and Krista Roose, decided to participate in Relay for Life for the first time this year.

Fredreckson, who lives near Tahoma Junior High, had wondered for years what was going on at the school at the end of June every year. Finally she got a flier on her door at her home and decided it was time to get involved and “just to something to helpful to get rid of cancer.”

“It was her idea,” Roose said. “The first meeting we went to was in March.”

Roose began fundraising by simply e-mailing people and posting on Facebook that she was part of a team participating in Relay for Life.

“I didn’t think many people would donate from (Facebook) but I said, ‘Anything, even $5 would help’ and I was surprised how much I got from there,” Roose said. “Once you start doing it and asking for donations, you find out how many other people who knew someone (who had cancer).”

Roose’s grandfather had cancer, which was another motivator.

That battle against cancer is common thread for those who participate, whether it be someone else’s battle like that of Roose’s grandfather, or be it much more personal like Pat and Arvid Rannow’s fight.

“Cancer sure brought us a lot closer,” Pat Rannow said. “I don’t think if I could’ve done it without him.”

Or help from Shelly Donaldson, who works at MultiCare, she said.

“To have somebody to lean on who is going through it means so much,” Rannow said.