(Editor's Note: The Farmingdale Observer will be running profiles of local residents who will be taking part in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life fund raiser on May 6-7.)

Relay for Life participant Thomas Hickey of Farmingdale will be participating in Relay for Life at Farmingdale State University of New York. His role will be a team captain/member.

Hickey has been involved with the American Cancer Society for three years. He said he became involved with the Relay for Life in 2004 when his company, BAE Systems, was putting together its first corporate team.

"A fellow employee had brought the idea of joining the team to my attention," Hickey said. "Because of my own personal battle with cancer, I knew that participating was the right thing to do."

A cancer survivor for over five years, Hickey is also a Neighborhood Coordinator for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and last year started participating in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk.

Hickey's personal story follows: "It was just about six years ago, when I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, and I remember feeling like I had just been handed a death sentence. In my own uneducated way of thinking, I remembered hearing from friends and relatives who had received other types of cancer diagnoses', that the doctors always want to check the lymph system to ascertain whether or not the disease had spread. So with my diagnosis being in the lymph system to begin with, I just thought that it could not be any worse. With the help of family, friends and my doctor, I quickly found myself in the care of an oncologist, Dr. Jeffrey Schneider, to whom I am now eternally grateful for having saved my life. But even before he did, he immediately began to educate me; he put truth and fact to what up until then had been rumors and uneducated guesses on my part. While Dr. Schneider was very honest with me and told me that while there are no guarantees with cancer treatments, tremendous advances had been made in recent years and not only did he want me to think that Non-Hodgkins was treatable, but curable, together we were going to beat this thing. My attitude toward this procedure that I was about to undergo, was as important as the procedure itself. So again, with the support of my wife Susan, I put myself in Dr. Schneider's capable hands, and went about beginning my chemotherapy treatments. I underwent chemo for about six months. Being human, I did go through periods when I questioned what the outcome of this ordeal was going to be but that is when my faith in Jesus Christ came to the rescue. I had been taught from the time I was a young boy that it was times like these that we are to put ourselves in God's hands and he will take care of us. So I did just that, and peace was restored in my life; I completed my chemo treatments and am here today to tell the story."

Residents who would like to share their story with our readers should contact

Jennifer Muccioli, c/o South Farmingdale Fire Department, 819 South Main St., Farmingdale, NY 11735, Jennifer.muccioli@baesystems.com. Phone: 516-249-4250.