A few days before the 2013 Be The Match Walk+Run 5K that took pace on Saturday, June 15, bone marrow transplant patients, family members and staff at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University conducted their own 5-kilometer relay in the transplant ward of Emory University Hospital. Since some participants couldn’t walk the entire circuit, most walked as long as they could before passing the baton off to the next person. Sixty-six laps around the transplant ward equaled five kilometers.

Bone marrow transplant patients and their family members often experience long weeks (and sometimes even months) of treatment.

“[The relay] is fun and it gives people an idea that they are not losing so much or giving up so much by being here, and they can still participate in things. Also, it’s a way for them to give back. It’s a way for all of us to give back,” says Amelia Langston, MD, medical director of the Emory Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant Center.