Meredith Page, volunteer for cancer society

She organized fund-raisers and took part in cancer testing programs. She spoke to groups about the risks of smoking and exposure to the sun. By example, she showed others that it was important to fight back.

In 2000, Mrs. Page created the society’s first Relay for Life of Needham, Dedham, and Wellesley fund-raiser, with its luminaria bags with cancer sufferers’ names and candles encircling a track where patients, survivors, and supporters walk or run over 24 hours.

She did that and much more for the cancer society for 30 years, not even slowing down during her own chemotherapy treatments, during the last 11 years in remission, or while she worked as a realtor in Wellesley Hills, ran a household, and continued volunteering at Walker Home and School Inc. in Needham.

“Meredith became an advocate for people dealing with cancer and an advocate and ambassador for us,’’ said Donald Gudaitis, chief executive of the New England division of the American Cancer Society. “She was a smart lady, interesting, warm, and friendly.’’

Her volunteerism was so impressive, he said, that in 2008 the boards of directors of the New England Division of the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society itself awarded Mrs. Page the St. George National Award, the highest recognition given to a volunteer by a division.

Mrs. Page, a Needham resident who was a Town Meeting member for 30 years and chairwoman of its traffic management advisory committee, died Jan. 7 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston of complications of a stroke. She was 74.

In presenting the St. George award to Mrs. Page, Andrew B. Prescott, then the chairman of the American Cancer Society’s New England division, said that after starting her Relay for Life, Mrs. Page “had grown the event from raising $65,000 in its first year to a total of more than $1.5 million since then.’’

In later relays, Mrs. Page was joined in running the May event by Nicholas Simmons-Stern of Needham, who lost his mother to cancer when he was 12. Now a sophomore at Yale, Simmons-Stern described Mrs. Page as “an incredible person who taught me so much about volunteering and giving back.’’

“She volunteered for 30 years in every way you possibly can and showed me how important it was to fight a disease like cancer,’’ he said.

Simmons-Stern felt the poem “I Walked,’’ by Jennie Davis, which Mrs. Page recited at every relay, captured her spirit.

It begins:

I walked around a track today

I walked to help a disease go away

I walked because there is a need

I walked that bodies could be freed

I walked to give a small child hope

I walked to help someone cope

Mrs. Page served on Walker School’s board of directors for 41 of her 50 volunteer years there.

“She was our first community volunteer and founded our first organization, Friends of Walker School,’’ said Richard W. Small, its executive director. “Meredith and her husband gave one of the first contributions ever.’’

They also started an annual golf tournament to benefit the school in the mid-1980s.

Small said the philanthropy program Mrs. Page started raised millions of dollars to support the school.

“Meredith used to say, ‘There is no greater thrill than to provide a child with a future,’ ’’ Small said. “She not only took care of the kids, she and other volunteers held appreciation breakfasts for the staff. She was very open about her cancer. She felt people should not think of it as a stigma.’’

A Walker tribute to Mrs. Page recalls that she was a surrogate mother to some of the younger students who had been in foster homes. Her two sons recalled that she took Walker students home to take part in their Little League games and other activities and, in turn, took her sons to Walker events.

“Whatever mother put her mind to, she gave 110 percent,’’ said her son, Jeffrey M. of Needham.

Another son, David B. of Hingham, described her as “a classic Mainer and as tough as the winters there.’’

“Mother never thought, ‘Woe is me,’ ’’ he said. “She always told me there is somebody else with bigger problems, and you’ve got to help them.’’

Her husband, Donald B., recalled how her alertness saved one couple from possible death.

“Meredith was giving out colorectal kits at a drugstore in Needham and testing lung quality,’’ he said. “One couple’s lung tests were very poor, and she told them. About three days later, their house was found to be full of carbon monoxide.’’

Mrs. Page was born Meredith Plaisted in Portland, Maine, and graduated from the Wayneflete School and Westbrook Junior College there. She married Donald Page in 1956. They lived in Framingham about a year, then in New Haven, before settling in Needham in 1966.

She began her volunteer work soon afterward. While her sons were growing up, she was a sports mom and known among their friends as, “Mrs. Booster.’’

She became involved with the American Cancer Society, she said on receiving its St. George Award, after the loss of her husband’s secretary and of several family members and friends to the disease.

“That motivated me to fight back,’’ she said at the time. She was one of the founders of the Charles River unit of the society’s New England division, which sponsors the annual fund-raiser, Charles River Gala.

“Meredith was the perfect volunteer,’’ said Kim Gatof, a member of the New England division’s board of directors. “She was warm and personal, but also direct and serious about the mission.’’

In a 2003 interview with the Needham Times, Mrs. Page had a message of hope. “The American Cancer Society has made me very aware that if you [detect] it early, there are wonderful things you can do,’’ she said. “People who deny changes in their bodies are avoiding early detection. They think if they deny it, they won’t have anything. But you lose valuable time.’’

She continued: “No one was more surprised than myself when I got it. I remembered the promise to myself that I would deal with it and not panic. . . . Cancer is not to be feared. Don’t waste any energy saying, ‘Why me?’ Just fight the battle.’’

In addition to her husband and sons, Mrs. Page leaves her twin brother, H. Merrill Plaisted of Richmond, Va.; a sister, Trudy Tibbetts of Seabrook, N.H.; and five grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. tomorrow at the Congregational Church in Needham.