COEUR d'ALENE - It was Sept. 7 when Jim Lynch was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatments and on Jan. 5, he had his esophagus removed.

Friday night, he and wife Linda, hand in hand, led the survivors' walk at the opening ceremony of the Kootenai County Relay for Life.

"I feel good, I'm a survivor," the Coeur d'Alene man said. "I'm glad to be here."

The 69-year-old Lynch grinned and nodded toward his wife and says that she had ovarian cancer. When she was diagnosed, she was given a 10-15 percent chance of survival.

That was 12 years ago.

"She's a real miracle," he said as they continued their walk around a path at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds.

To the tune of the Dire Straits song "Walk of Life," the annual 18-hour event to benefit the American Cancer Society and fund research, services and advocacy for the disease, began at 6 p.m. under blue, sunny skies.

About 70 teams of volunteers vowed to walk throughout the night and continue until noon today to raise money.

Others set up booths offering games, food and beverages, again with the same goal, to raise money to fight cancer. Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters were welcome and wanted, too.

The Kootenai County Relay for Life raised $100,000 last year and organizers hoped to top that this year.

They left no doubt of their intent.

Volunteers wore white shirts that read "Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back."

Survivors, like Jim Tate, donned deep purple shirts that read "One Day. One Night. One Community. One Fight."

Tate, of Coeur d'Alene, has been free of cancer nine years since he was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1999.

The 71-year-old with a Bulldogs hat on his head was upbeat and grinning Friday as he sat on a bench, waiting to take a victory lap.

"I'm doing good," he said.

Tate recalled that his cancer treatment "went easy," but for "a little stroke on top of it and I was in the hospital for a month."

Still, he stayed positive - always.

He laughed as he talked about nurses coming into his room to take his temperature.

"I would say, 'out.' Then, they started saying 'out' back to me," Tate said. "That was our way of having a positive attitude with each other."

Today, Tate is a season-ticket holder for the Gonzaga Bulldogs women's basketball team, likes to display his antique tractor and loves to spend time in a cabin at the Magee Ranger Station.

"That's my entertainment," he said, smiling.

Friends Pamela Leonard and Charmaine Peterson, both 46, are also cancer survivors.

Leonard, of Post Falls, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer four years ago.

"OK," she said quietly, when asked how she was feeling.

She spoke of getting involved in the Relay when she and Peterson lost a friend to cancer.

"We helped their team in remembrance of her and the battle that they go through," Leonard said. "It's a tough thing."

Peterson was diagnosed with breast cancer in April.

The mother of three fought back tears as she talked of cancer.

"It's tough," the Hayden woman said. "You do what you've got to do."

Peterson said her prognosis is good.

"I've done all the chemo, radiation, surgeries. I'm on the five-year plan. It's in God's hands," she said.

Both said the Relay for Life gives them inspiration and hope. They wanted to be part of it not just for themselves, for others, too.

"You don't realize, until you're a part of it, how big it really is," Peterson said.

The Relay makes them realize, too, they are not alone.

"Sometimes you get in that hole that you're the only one. Then you see all these people out there who are fighting the fight even harder than yourself," Peterson said.

Her mother, she added, had breast cancer six years ago and on Friday night, was at the Relay for Life, cancer free.

"You gotta fight the fight," Peterson said. "Fight the fight. Fight the battle."