ROANOKE - Caterpillar Inc. has honored a Roanoke resident described as a tireless volunteer for the American Cancer Society by donating $25,000 to the charity's Relay for Life campaign in his name.

Val Boucher, himself a cancer survivor, was the first U.S. winner of the construction-equipment maker's Individual Chairman's Community Service Award.

The award honors two individuals and two teams of Caterpillar employees who demonstrate extraordinary acts of volunteerism and community service.

"I felt like Cinderella at the ball," Boucher said of the recent recognition ceremony at the company's Peoria headquarters. "I would have loved to have had the whole evening in slow motion."

Boucher is part of the American Cancer Society's National Task Force and the charity's National Leadership Training Team. He is one of 30 volunteers who travel around the country to train volunteer leaders.

Boucher's passion for volunteering rose out of experiencing the disease firsthand. His hairy cell leukemia, a very rare blood disorder, has been in remission since 1994.

Cancer changed life

He said having cancer changed his life.

"A lot of positive things happened because of it," Boucher said. "My outlook on life changed. I became less disciplined, and instead of everything being in black and white, I put a little gray in my life.

"I used to be so concerned about the little things," he said. "Now, I'm relaxing and enjoying life a lot more."

About 600 people are diagnosed each year with hairy cell leukemia, according to the Mayo Clinic Web site.

His grandfather also had the same type of cancer, but when his grandfather was diagnosed, the death rate was more than 90 percent. He never knew his grandfather.

However, because of new treatments developed in the 1980s for hairy cell leukemia, the death rate has now dropped to about 5 percent, he said. The treatment was the result of research dollars being used to find a cure.

That fact helps fuel Boucher's passion to raise money for Relay for Life, the American Cancer Society's signature fund-raising event.

"We 'Relay' year round," Boucher said. "Fundraisers go on all the time. Every penny counts and it's all directed to the Relay for Life."

In addition to raising money, Boucher spends many weekends training others to be Relay leaders. He also spends time with people who recently have been diagnosed with cancer, listening, counseling and offering information on resources.

Boucher said teamwork is what makes the Woodford County Relay for Life No. 1 in the nation for fundraising per capita. His Relay team, Saluting Our Heroes, has collected more $49,000 in the past four years alone.

"At Relay, I look at all those people who have taken time out of their lives to be there," Boucher said. "Everybody there deserved this award."