MANKATO — Jon Sands and Elisabeth Moat know what it’s like to be told someone close to them may die soon — and what it feels like to fight a war against cancer that, to many, may seem unwinnable.

For Sands, it was a succession of people. First his aunt was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She lost her battle. Then his great-aunt with lung cancer. Then his friend with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. They are both cancer free.

For Moat, there was just one person: her mother. In October, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. After chemotherapy and surgery, she, too is cancer free.

“I was mentally preparing to lose her,” she said. “It was nothing short of a miracle.”

Sand and Moat — along with about a dozen other Minnesota State University students — are launching the third annual Colleges Against Cancer Relay for Life Saturday at MSU’s Myers Field House.

Their personal connection to cancer, they say, drove them to seek out ways they can use their energy to make a difference.

For Sands, this will be his second year taking part in the Colleges Against Cancer relay. It is Moat’s first.

Their relay works like all other relays in small towns and big cities all over the country each year. Organizers recruit teams that then go out and raise pledges. On relay day, teams keep a team member on the relay path at all times.

Paths are typically lined with luminarias, put in place by the survivors of people who have lost their lives to cancer. For many, the relay is an emotional experience that provides a chance for teams and families to meet with each other in a supportive atmosphere.

Sands heads up MSU’s Colleges Against Cancer effort this year. Moat, meanwhile, is being groomed for a leadership role for next year.

Sands says that before dealing with cancer in his family and his friend, his priority was his social life. But after dealing with his aunt’s death and sitting in a hospital room with his friend during chemotherapy sessions, he reorganized his priorities.

“When you’re going through things like this, you tend to become an advocate,” he said. “It really changed my outlook and made me want to get involved, to live and make a difference.”

Cancer in the family made a difference in Moat’s life, too.

She was very driven academically, and in fact came to MSU this year, right out of high school, as a junior (she was a post-secondary enrollment option student).

But she refocused, she said, after her mother was diagnosed with cancer.

“It might sound like a cliché, but this whole thing made we want to live life to the fullest,” she said. “That is the honest truth. It really makes you want to live your life.”

So Moat decided to get involved. And one of the first places she went was Colleges Against Cancer. And while she’s still a good student, she’s not afraid to live in the moment more.

“This has taught me that there’s so much more to life than finishing an essay,” she said.

MSU’s Colleges Against Cancer chapter hopes to match the success of its first year: $18,000. Members already surpassed their goal of teams. They hoped for 20 teams, and already have 27.