FT. MOHAVE – When Susan King became a medical professional more than 30 years ago she knew that she wanted to care for people.  Now King, a registered nurse for the past 23 years, has taken her care to the next level.  With a hospital lobby full of supporters and onlookers at Valley View Medical Center, King shaved her head to raise funds for the American Cancer Society’s local Relay For Life fundraiser.  At the same time, King is donating her hair to Locks of Love, an organization that makes wigs for those undergoing cancer treatment.

“When I first attended last year’s Relay I thought there might be 200 people — instead there were thousands from throughout the Tri-State and beyond,” King told a crowd of well-wishers at Valley View, where she is a nursing supervisor.  “It was absolutely amazing.  I’m invested in this community and I want to be involved in it.”

Following a tradition started on the ABC newscast Good Morning America, King told her story between shears in three words: “Relay … For … Life.”  The Relay For Life walk for the Bullhead City AZ / Laughlin NV / Needles CA area will be held May 6 – 7 at Mohave High School in Bullhead City.

Her goal was to raise $1,000; she raised more than $1,200.  King had not cut her hair for two and a half years.  To prepare for the sudden change, colleagues knitted her hats and made surgical scrub caps.

Cancer has hit home for King at different levels.  Professionally, she has provided care for cancer patients for many years.  Personally, she has lost family members to cancer and is now playing a supporting role for her sister after the sister’s mother … King’s stepmother … died of cancer.

“Many cancer patients lose their hair during some treatments,” noted Karen Morris, founder of We Care Cancer Support, the local Tri-State affiliate of the American Cancer Society.  “This is not only a way to help raise funds for the Bullhead/Laughlin Relay, but it’s an empathetic sign of support that shows Susan understands what many of us have gone through or are going through.”  Morris was in attendance.

So were King’s husband and her daughter, also a nurse, who drove from Las Vegas for the event.

Lora Bruno, the owner of Bentley Place Hair Design Full Service Salon in Ft. Mohave, donated her services.

King is no stranger to supporting causes important to her.  It is her second year actively involved in Relay For Life and her first as one of Valley View’s team captains.  In 2009 she challenged co-workers to contribute to Operation: Soldier Down, a locally organized campaign to benefit the Landstuhl Hospital Care Project.  LHRC is a non-profit organization providing comfort and relief items for military members who become sick, injured, or wounded from service in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan.  Donated items are distributed to patients at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the largest American military hospital outside the U.S.; to field hospitals in Afghanistan and Iraq; and to Veterans Administration facilities throughout the United States., matching donations dollar for dollar.  King lost a family member during the first Gulf War.

“It was my first military funeral.  You never hear ‘Taps’ again the same way,” she said.  “I’m a nurse.  There are guys at Landstuhl or Walter Reed [Army Medical Center] who don’t have underwear or socks, and that’s not right.”

In 2009 King was named nurse of the year for her unit at the time, Valley View’s medical/surgery acute care department.  She was promoted to a nursing supervisor last year.

Valley View has been a Gold Level Relay For Life corporate sponsor for several years. Employee donations from a variety of fundraisers more than doubled that contribution, making Valley View and its staff the largest Bullhead City/Laughlin/Needles Relay For Life donor in 2010.

Valley View is a 90-bed hospital and medical center in Ft. Mohave, just south of Bullhead City. It is part of LifePoint Hospitals, Inc., a leading hospital company dedicated to providing quality healthcare in non-urban communities.