On Friday November 7th, 80 delegates from 30 of the 36 Relay For Life partner organizations came together in London to commence three days of meetings. This was our chance to share successes, best practices, and new ideas as well as to find inspiration in this amazing global network, which in 2024 engaged 15,000 volunteers in hosting over 1,700 Relay For Life events, celebrating over 50,000 cancer survivors.

The meeting started with a look back over the 40 years of Relay For Life and the impact it has had since its inception, as well as a look back at the parallel work of the ACS Cancer Action Network and Global Cancer Support programs. Over the following two days Global Relay For Life partners presented on successes that their programs have recorded, including significant growth, youth expansion, large city events, new strategic approaches, and more. We also heard external vendors from the charity sector who shared insights from their work and what they are seeing in the charity landscape.

On Sunday morning our Global volunteer team took things to the next level, sharing their own personal journeys with their cancer charities and explaining how they came to work at this level. These stories showed us what is important to volunteers and what we need to provide in order to inspire more people to contribute in this way.

We wrapped up the weekend with an inspiring story from of the Relay journey from a young man in Ireland who lost his mum to cancer, which lead him and his brothers to bring Relay to their community. He has since then become a Relay staff member at the Irish Cancer Society.

We left proud of the impact that we all have together through Relay, inspired to know that we are part of a global movement and better connected to continue developing together.