VIDALIA — Angela Perrin is only 32 years old, but she’s already wearing the purple and white survivor’s sash.

And even though she has been fighting for two years to defeat ovarian and uterine cancer, sometimes it still does not feel like reality.

“It didn’t really sink in until three or four days after (the diagnosis). It seemed unrealistic to me,” Perrin said. “And sometimes it still does.”

But for Perrin, no matter how difficult the fight gets, she knows she will continue to fight. And for days when it seems too difficult, she said, she has a great support system on which to rely.

“It’s a big help,” she said. “It is a comfort when you know you have people praying for you at church, calling you to check on you, cooking you dinner. They will do anything they can do to help you.”

Friday night, Perrin, and other Miss-Lou cancer survivors received support in a big way when hundreds gathered on the Vidalia Riverfront for the annual Relay for Life.

But Perrin, from Vidalia, doesn’t just have help at home in the Miss-Lou. Her support system spans states, something for which she is thankful.

One of her biggest supporters is her cousin Natasha Dupree who made the trip from Beaumont, Texas, to celebrate Relay for Life with Perrin.

“She gets support even from states away,” Dupree said. “She is only six years older than me and from the time I was born she was more like a big sister.”

Dupree said her church in Texas has more than 500 members that are praying for Perrin.

“I know her name is on their lips every day,” she said. “Everyone is fighting for her.”

Everyone is fighting for the same thing — the day Perrin receives her clean bill of health.

For Gaynell Whitney, who walked the track Friday night, the elation of knowing her body is once again cancer-free has come. The Natchezian was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2007 and after a eight-month fight, Whitney was told she had beaten the cancer.

“I don’t even have the words to describe it,” she said. “God is the one who helped me and healed me.”

Even prior to her diagnosis, Whitney attended Relay for Life events in the Miss-Lou; now she said they are even more special.

“This is our hope,” she said.

And thanks to Relay for Life teams across the country, many more people will have hope, Whitney said.

That’s because the money raised at Relay for Life events goes directly to cancer research and patient and caregiver education.

And here in the Miss-Lou, teams are well- known for their fundraising efforts. One team that constantly excels is the Britton & Koontz Bank team. Mary Lynn Jordan, B&K employee and Relay for Life team member, credits their success to a campaign that never takes a holiday.

“We place an emphasis on it all year round,” she said.

And for many of the employees who raise money each year, the fight is personal, Jordan said.

“We have several of our employees who have been touched by cancer and we are raising money and fighting for them,” she said.

Fellow B&K employee Janine D’Avry said teamwork has always been the key to the success.

“We all work together and the management has always been supportive and encouraging,” she said.

And it is never too early to start fundraising, just ask members of the Vidalia Lower Elementary team. The team has raised more than $10,000 so far and has several fundraisers that are still ongoing.

The team raffled off a giant stuffed panda and giraffe, had a Mardi Gras king and queen fundraising drive and sold chances to wear jeans to school.

Team member Tori Webber, who lost both her mother and father to brain tumors, said raising money for Relay is her way to honor her parents.

“I was with each of them when they passed. I was their caregiver,” she said. “Now I want to make a difference.

Webber said the teachers, staff and students were all eager to raise money.

“Almost everyone has been touched by cancer in some way,” she said. “Even the students, they knew what it was and why we were raising money.”

Webber said the Relay experience became very real for one of her first-grade students whose grandfather was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the middle of the VLE fundraising drive.

“She said to me ‘We’re raising money for my papaw so he can get better.’”