Community runs to help families fighting cancer

Hundreds of people came out on Saturday for the 7 th Annual Alex 5K Run For Hope at Calexico High School Ward Field in support of families fighting cancer.
Founder of the non-profit organization Amigos de Alejandro, and event organizer, Elba Quezada said thousands of dollars were raised for a good cause.
“We have been helping, I can tell you about 30 or 40 families. Some of them with gas cards. Some of them with financial support. Some with emotional support. Even with funeral expenses, also,” Quezada said.
The organization began 10 years ago after a tragic experience in the Quezada family.
“It was after my son Alejandro passed due to cancer blood-related illness,” Quezada said.
She saw firsthand what other families fighting cancer were going through.
“Because of all the support that we received and what we learned, and the lack of services here in the valley, that’s when we decide that it was time for somebody to start something to help families who are going thru their kids being diagnosed with cancer,” Quezada said.
Helping those families became her mission in life.
“This is a new way of life. It’s a total different way of seeing things, always keeping others in mind who may need us,” Quezada said.
She has a message for others fighting cancer, words that come from personal experience.
“Please, don’t feel alone. There are many families here in the valley that are going through the same. We have been in that same path as you are right now. Don’t feel alone.
Here we are to help you, to listen to you. If we need to laugh together. If we need to cry together, we are here to help you,” Quezada said.
Amigos de Alejandro can be reached on Facebook.