Six years ago, UW-Madison senior Kari Liotta took a trip to the doctor that forever changed her life—she was diagnosed with papillary carcinoma, a cancer of the thyroid gland.

“I was 16, a sophomore in high school, and I had cancer,” she said.

Now, 22-year-old Liotta is preparing to graduate from UW-Madison with a degree in Family, Consumer and Community Education, with an emphasis in community leadership.

As the former president of Colleges Against Cancer’s UW-Madison chapter, Liotta shared her survival story with fellow students, and helped organize Relay for Life, a fundraising event, among other achievements.

This year’s Relay for Life at UW-Madison will be held from Friday at 6 p.m. until 8 a.m. Saturday at the Shell, and will feature U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., as a speaker.

“We’re really, really excited about that,” said Stephanie Van Hecke, a UW-Madison Relay for Life committee publicity chair. Van Hecke said this year’s Relay is the biggest Madison has ever had and credited the committee’s co-chairs Ally Nathan and Megan Geissler with the success.

“For me it’s huge,” Geissler said, adding this is the ninth Relay for Life she has been involved in. “Our goal is to raise $165,000, which I think we’re going to blow out of the water. Even to meet our goal I think is a tremendous accomplishment—it means a lot.”

“Every community that there’s a Relay for Life is people who don’t know each other coming together because everyone supports this cause. I think that is something truly unique about Relay for Life.”

According to the event website, more than 1,330 individuals in 128 teams will participate on Friday. UW-Madison’s Relay for Life had raised $70,914 as of press time.

“Most of [the teams] are just groups of friends who have been touched by somebody with cancer or are friends of somebody who has been touched with cancer,” Van Hecke said, adding teams usually consist of 10 to 15 individuals.

One such individual is Liotta, who participated in her first Relay for Life in 2003 with friends from high school, raising $2,300 with her team. Liotta has focused on ways to make an impact on those affected by cancer ever since. She has even been asked to give speeches at American Cancer Society events about her survival story.

“By letting others into my world, into my experience, I’m letting them know that they have the same opportunity and power to help make a difference,” Liotta said. “If what I say and do inspires others to get involved, they are, in turn, inspiring others to do that same thing.”

—Heather Bonzelet contributed to this report.