Hooked up to an intravenous line for a 36-hour chemotherapy treatment Janet Swisher fumed in her hospital bed.

In 2010, when her cancer returned though she had been told it shouldn’t, Swisher would go to the hospital on Thursday nights for chemo. By Tuesday morning she’d be back at work.

But, she was furious with cancer, not just for storming back into her body.

“I was so mad,” Swisher said. “Both of my brothers had been diagnosed with skin cancer in the past couple years. My mom and I were diagnosed in the same year.”

Her mother died in 2004. Swisher lost her father to cancer four years later.

“Whenever you or a family member is told you have cancer, you feel like you have no control,” she said. “I’m in my hospital room and I said, ‘Screw it, I’m going to sign up.’”

Swisher, a Covington resident, decided to start a Relay for Life team and hopped on her computer mid-chemo treatment.

She named the group that would participate in the 24-hour event Team CCKMA — the acronym stands for Cancer Can Kiss My A–.

“It was the only thing I could do to take back some control,” Swisher said. “I thought, OK, I’ll start this team and raise a little money. Then I’ll be satisfied.”

She asked for donations.

Friends and family came through in a big way. Swisher ended up raising the most money in the Covington-Maple Valley-Black Diamond Relay for Life event in 2010.

A year ago, she was asked to give a speech from a survivor’s perspective, and initially Swisher thought, “Hell, no.”

Upon further reflection, Swisher said, she changed her mind.

“You realized, ‘I’m probably not going to live to be 90,’” she said. “You realize you’re not invincible.”

So, she stood up in front a bunch of people and spoke.

“I’m not a public speaker,” Swisher said. “I’m not good in front of a crowd, but, it just naturally came out of me.”

This year she was asked to help chair the committee which coordinates the event, which is set for June 2-3 at Kentwood High School, along with Lacy Parker.

“I’ve lived here in Covington for 10 years,” Swisher said. “I never really felt connected because of working in Seattle or Bellevue. I found with Relay, because it’s all about your community, the team is from the community, the sponsors are from your community … the people that have stepped up has just been amazing.”

Swisher said that through this volunteer work she has met so many people who have gone through what she has gone through and “we all have that same bond.”

“It’s been an outlet for me and it’s been so healing,” she said. “I’ve seen some people who have lost their spouses and they’re out there working their butts off. It’s a labor of love. It’s a lot of work.”

The work seems to have paid off so far.

Swisher and Parker had a goal of 35 teams for this year’s Relay. The team development chairs had set a goal of 50.

Through May 11 there were 41 teams which is more than this event has ever had.

“We’ve almost doubled in size from this past year,” Swisher said. “We hope to continue that momentum next year. We’ve had a lot of success.”

Fundraising is going well, Swisher said, and “I have a feeling that we’re going to exceed last year’s numbers.”

Everyone involved with planning the event has been out in the community drumming up support, Swisher said, and there are a number of community sponsors.

“Some of them are newer businesses in our community,” she said. “So, they’re trying to get their name out, but, they realize it’s also about connecting with their community.”

Those who are interested in participating, Swisher said, can still do so.

“People can still sign up a team,” she said. “You can sign up a team the day of. They can just come and they can walk. We’re still looking for survivors. We’re still accepting sponsors. We welcome everybody.”

It is important to register, Swisher said, if a group plans to participate as a team but that can be done on site the day of the event.

And volunteers are always welcome to come set up before the event or break down afterward.

This year being in a new location — in years past it had been at Tahoma Junior High — could help the event grow even more.

“We’re pretty excited about the location as far as the visibility from the road,” Swisher said. “I feel like we’re really going to see the fruits of that on the day of Relay because we’re going to be in a densely populate neighborhood.”

Ultimately, Swisher said, the best way to learn about it is to see up close.

“You just have to see Relay,” she said. “Come check it out and you’ll get addicted.”

Find more information log onto www.relayforlife4corners.org or check it out on Facebook. All money raised goes to the American Cancer Society to provide services to cancer patients in the Puget Sound region.