NATCHEZ — Just like the Relay for Life team her daughter founded, Janet Smith has got spirit.

At nearly 12:30 a.m. Saturday, Smith sunk into a folding chair and quietly watched the late night activity of her red-shirted team, despite being diagnosed in March with a third round of cancer.

Her daughter, Regina Rand, started the team with her church, the First United Pentecostal Church of Natchez, almost two decades ago when her mother was fighting breast cancer for the first time.

Smith was in remission after her first diagnosis in 1993, and then diagnosed again with breast cancer in 1998, Rand said.

When a blood test from an annual checkup last November revealed cancer cells, it took doctors five months to find the cancer.

“I’ve been though every tunnel you can go through,” Smith said.

The numerous MRIs, CAT scans and other tests showed the cancer was on her bones, and not inside, which was a good sign.

Smith said even when she wanted to give up, her oncologist Dr. Jack Rodriguez refused to until they pinpointed the problem.

Smith, who sat next to her longtime friend and breast cancer survivor, Wilma Briggs, said Relay serves as a big pick-me-up. The boost is timely since Smith, who wore a blue bandana to cover he head, had chemotherapy just a week and a half ago.

“It’s a booster in your morale that you have so many people participating — (some who are) not (directly) affected by cancer,” she said of the church team.

Having that support while fighting cancer is very important, Smith said.

While Smith spoke, young girls wearing shirts that matched hers roamed the sidewalks after midnight on a mission to hand out free water and fans with their team logo.

“One of the girls said I was in style because bandanas are in style,” Smith laughed.

Regina said other than a few years in which the team did not have a tent, First Church of Natchez always arrives and bows out in style at Relay.

Even before her team was awarded first place for spirit this year, Rand said the spirit award is a prize they often tend to win.

Smith and Rand estimated at least 60 people on her team showed up Friday night.

For the holiday themed lap, members of First Church of Natchez represented eight different holidays this year instead of one, including Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day and Fourth of July.

Even the snack tray, which took home third place, was holiday themed.

When the time and location for Relay was up in the air, Smith said her team never stopped meeting and planning.

For a fundraiser this year, the First Church of Natchez team created Natchezoploy. Natchezopoly is a custom-designed board game modeled after Monopoly with the real estate spots representing local business who sponsored them.

Team member and church music director Melody Wedergen, a graphic designer, designed it, and Rand said the team sent it off to a company who specializes in custom board games to manufacture the game.

“Some people are buying two of them,” Rand said. “One to keep and one to play with.”

Rand’s daughter Ashlae said keeping up the spirit all night is easier with their secret energy kick — brownies.

Ashlae’s grandmother, Smith, on the other hand, admitted she goes through lulls and phases of tiredness, but Rand disputed her.

“As a matter of fact, (Smith and Briggs) would be some of the ones who would stay out all night,” she said.

Rand said the evening was hot, but she and her team never considered participating in 2011 Relay for Life any other way than full spirit ahead.