NATCHEZ &8212; Only at this time each year do so many people give so much effort to take possession of &8230; a bedpan.

On Saturday, softball teams made up of employees from Natchez Regional Medical Center, Natchez Community Hospital, Riverpark Medical Center and Promise Healthcare played an all-day tournament at Duncan Park.

And yes &8212; at least in the case of the Natchez Regional-Natchez Community face-offcalled the &8220;Battle of the Bedpans&8221; &8212; the trophy at stake was a bronzed bedpan.

But much more is at stake than such a (dubious?) honor. That&8217;s because the annual game is actually a fund raiser for Relay for Life, one of the American Cancer Society&8217;s biggest sources of funds.

Raising money for research to help find a cure for cancer and to assist those it impacts, is personal for many local health care workers who were at the ballpark Saturday.

That&8217;s no surprise, since many of them see the effects of cancer firsthand day after day, said Community coach Connie Merrick.

Besides, Regional coach Dan Hogan said, that type of people that choose health care as a profession &8220;are people who like to help anyway.&8221;

The results? Regional won the bedpan in the Regional-Community faceoff; Community won the overall tournament.

But the real winner was the cause itself. When the bats were put up and players had gone home for some much-needed rest, more than $900 had been raised for Relay for Life.