“I’m looking around and I can kind of tell who has had cancer and who hasn’t,” Jessica Sanchez said after finishing her dinner at the Colleges Against Cancer fiesta, which honored cancer survivors at the University.

“[It's] the way people sit. Their comfortableness,” Sanchez said. “After surviving cancer, you don’t fret the small stuff in life. After preparing yourself for death so many times, and surviving, you feel comfortable in your own skin.”

Sanchez was one of several survivors at the Colleges Against Cancer dinner on Thursday. CAC, a division of the American Cancer Society that fights cancer through advocacy, education, fundraising and survivorship, formed a chapter at the University in 2001.

Guests were welcome at the dinner, and some of the attendants had family members who had survived their cancer battle.

In a speech to recognize survivors, Angela Sackett, a sophomore from Lawrenceville, said she was in the room when her mom received news over the telephone that she was diagnosed with cancer.

“Right away I knew that we would be OK,” Sackett said. Her mom, Andrea Sackett, assured her their family would make it through her fight for her life against the disease, she said.

Sackett said her ninth grade year was hard, but she received support from a lot of people and decided to dedicate herself to a cause that was personal.

She started a Relay for Life team at her high school, helping to raise funds for cancer research. Relay for Life is a national fundraising event in which teams and individuals raise money to participate in a 24-hour walk or run for the American Cancer Society.

Sackett is now the survivorship chair of CAC. Her emotional speech reached its climax when she looked at her mom sitting in the audience and said:

“I do all of this for my mom,” with a shining smile and quivering voice.

Sanchez did not speak at the event, but she shared her story during dinner. She said she was diagnosed with cancer in March 2005, two months before graduating from high school. The doctors said she had a very rare, aggressive tumor located in her jaw, which soon spread into her mouth.

Sanchez said she underwent chemotherapy every day for a year. She eventually had to have reconstructive surgery on her jaw. Her weakened body forced her to complete most of her assignments outside of school.

“My teachers were so lenient on me,” she said.

She garnered enough strength to walk at her high school graduation and receive her diploma, she said. But she had to forgo college for a year to recuperate from the extremely painful chemotherapy treatments.

Now she is a junior at the University, majoring in theater with an emphasis in design.

“Every time I look at an obstacle, I’m like, ‘it can be worse,’” she said.

Her next surgery is scheduled for May 2009.

After Sackett’s speech, she called forth all of the cancer survivors to be recognized for their strength and the hope they instill in others to fight against the disease that attacks one American every 24 seconds, according to the CAC Web site.

When Sackett’s mom received her gift bag from the American Cancer Society, she addressed the room.

“Cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Andrea Sackett said. “It taught me to appreciate every single day and every person I meet.”

For information about meetings and to join the fight against cancer, visit www.uga.edu/cac.