Cancer leaves a lasting mark. Years after the treatments are over, after the suffering is over, victims and their families still feel the effects.

To show support for everyone who has been touched by the disease, Austin will host the Relay for Life, beginning at 6 p.m., Friday at the Mill Pond.

Performers such as Miss Austin 2002, AnnMarie Wagner and Bubbles the Clown will entertain until about 8:30 p.m. when Father Paul Nelson from St. Augustine's Catholic Church will give an invocation and the portion of the event dedicated to those who have suffered from cancer and their families will begin.

At 9 p.m., luminaries which were purchased in memory of a cancer victim and for survivors, will begin to be lit and the names of the people to whom the bags are dedicated will be read.

One of those luminaries will belong to Kim Baier, 32, of Austin who is an honorary chairperson and will be at the Relay for Life to share her story.

Baier says she has been a cancer survivor for 14 years after a lump was found in her neck by her chiropractor during her senior year of high school. "They were going to do a biopsy, but my mom insisted they remove it instead," she says.

The mass was tested and was found to be muceopidermoid carcinoma -- cancer of the salivary glands. Baier says her mother's insistence the lump be removed meant "everything was caught in time," and also was a life-saving move because "we learned later that a needle biopsy would not have detected it."

Though she still has tests performed every year to make sure it hasn't returned, she's never had another bought with cancer. She's been lucky.

This year, the Relay for Life will be even more special for her because she says her mother-in-law who survived one bout with the disease, died last December after it returned. "It means a lot that the community has pulled together to raise this money," Baier says. "Hopefully someday they'll find a cure."

In the meantime, she advises people to "not take any chances. If you think something is wrong with you, get it checked out."

Amanda L. Rohde can be reached at 434-2214 or by e-mail at amanda.rohde@austindailyherald.com