Hundreds turned out at Bennett’s Creek Park on Saturday and into Sunday for the 30th annual Suffolk Relay for Life.

The American Cancer Society event raises money in the fight against cancer while honoring cancer survivors, remembering those who have lost the battle and raising awareness about a disease that touches almost everyone.

One of the many cancer survivors among 624 participants and 80 teams — according to the event website Saturday afternoon — was Suffolk’s Joe Questore, 75.

Questore was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2002. “I’ve lived 13 years longer than my dad, who had the same thing,” he said.

“I hope I can go another 13 years.”

He said he started relaying in about 2002 to support cancer awareness. “I think so many people have been touched by it that sometimes it just gets lost,” he said.

“People don’t think about it anymore. I think they take it almost for granted now, and that’s not a good thing. I think we have to keep fighting it.”

Questore’s dad died from his illness in 1971, after staying alive considerably longer than the doctors had predicted. “Back then, they had no testing. They caught it when it was too late,” Joe Questore said.

Suffolk Treasurer Ron Williams was the event’s honorary chair this year. He shared the story of his brother, who succumbed to pancreatic cancer 16 months after diagnosis.

“But he fought it hard, and that become a defining moment,” Williams said.

Williams told the crowd, “You are the fighters in this battle, in this war.”

Mayor Linda T. Johnson talked about her brother, a cancer research doctor, she said, who just returned to work at the National Institutes of Health after he had retired.

“He went back because one of the things they’ve been working on for 30 years now has got a chance of fighting this disease,” Johnson said, adding her brother’s wife is a 10-year cancer survivor.

Event chair Heather Howell asked the participants to think about walking through light and dark during the event. She said it mirrors the experience of a cancer patient undergoing treatment.

“As you will be exhausted (at the end), so will the patient,” she said.

Before the Survivors’ Lap got the event started, 30 doves were given to survivors and family members of victims — symbols of honor and remembrance.

People smiled as the white birds were released and flew across the sky.