VIDALIA — Cancer never sleeps, and apparently neither do the late-night Relay for Lifers that walked through the twilight hours Friday night into the wee hours of Saturday morning on the Vidalia riverfront.

Vidalia resident and expecting mother Stacy Roberts sat with her feet propped up on a cooler underneath a banner that read “If Mama were here Mama would say ‘Carry on,’” and watched fellow members of Team Carry On make late-night laps after midnight.

“We’ve been here since 3 in the afternoon,” Roberts said. “It’s been a long day, but we’re still here, and we’re going to stick it out until 4 a.m.”

Even though the evening Miss-Lou Relay For Life click here for photo gallery crowd dwindled as the night went on, Roberts said she and her team were catching a second, third and even fourth wind to pull them through the night.

“The whole point of why we’re here, to show we care and to help beat cancer, that’s what keeps us going,” Roberts said.

Roberts started Team Carry On two years ago shortly after her mother, Dena Thornton, lost her three-month battle with lung cancer.

“For my family, it’s been something we can do to keep Mama’s memory alive and something positive we can do for others in her name,” Roberts said.

Team B&K Bank Captain Mary Lynn Jordan said she believes the team members that stick it out through the night are showing their true dedication to the cause and their teams.

“We’re all dedicated to the cause, but I think the ones who stay really late probably have a tad more dedication to their teams and really care about seeing this event all the way through to the end,” Jordan said.

Team B&K Bank member Susan Weed, a fifth-year ovarian cancer survivor, said the crowds may have lessened through the night, but she said the fun did not.

“The blindfolded makeup game was hilarious and so was the boxcar race,” she said laughing. “They were really racing around the track with those cars.”

Weed said she enjoyed the fellowship with late-night relayers and did not mind giving up a night’s sleep for a very worthy cause.

“Time is so important to people now since our lives are so busy,” she said. “But we take this one night to remember and collect money to beat cancer.”