But she also knows more needs to be done. She knows it every time she thinks about her mother and father or looks at the pictures hanging on her kitchen wall dedicated to her husband that read "In Loving Memory of Bruce."
Soroka may not be a cancer survivor herself, but she is battling the disease every day of her life.
Soroka, a 61-year-old Meriden native who now lives in Durham, saw her father die of bladder cancer when he was 62. Her mother followed with liver cancer about 20 years later.
She met her future husband, Bruce Soroka, in kindergarten and the two became high school sweethearts even though she went to Maloney High School and he attended rival Platt.
Bruce Soroka went on to become the Meriden's city engineer from 1978-1982 and was also chairman of the Court of Common Council's Zoning Committee, a member of the Planning Commission and a selectman from 1973-1975.
Bruce Soroka was diagnosed with prostate cancer in January 2000. He died six months later on July 4 at the age of 55. The couple was married for 32 years.
"It advanced very fast," she said. "It was a real tough time for me."
That's when she sought comfort in the Meriden-Wallingford Relay for Life.
Soroka had walked the track at the event since its inception in Meriden in 1995, but it wasn't until she got a call from City Councilor Michael S. Rohde after her husband died that she got more involved.
Rohde, a Seminoma cancer survivor, was the chairman of the first Relay for Life in Meriden in 1995. The event merged with Wallingford in 1996. The 24-hour event raises money for cancer research.
Following the phone call, Soroka joined the event's planning committee and is now the volunteer coordinator.
"I knew what a healing event this was for so many people and I just thought that this would be something she would be interested in and get something from," Rohde said.
"I didn't want to force anything if she wasn't ready. I thought she would find comfort in it and she's since become a star. It's one of those magical things."
"He said 'Come on Muriel,'" Soroka said. "I thought to myself that he was right. I had a lot of reasons to get more involved in Relay. At first it was extremely emotional because it was so soon after my husband died. Now I'm more about getting this eradicated so other people don't have to go through what I've gone through."
She will continue to serve in both positions when the 12th annual Relay for Life takes place Friday and Saturday at Lyman Hall High School, 70 Pond Hill Road, but now she has even more reason to be involved.
Soroka's 12-year-old granddaughter, Alyssa Gaetani of Groton, was diagnosed with leukemia just over a year ago. After undergoing intense chemotherapy at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Gaetani, one of Soroka's 10 grandchildren, is now in remission.
"When you first hear that word leukemia, it's totally devastating until you look at it more and know this can be beat and we're going to do it," Soroka said.
Gaetani will be holding the survivor banner during the survivor's lap of this weekend's event. She will also be swimming with the dolphins in Oahu, Hawaii later this month thanks to Christian and Sarah Bourdon and the Make a Wish Foundation.
Noah Bourdon, Christian and Sarah Bourdon's 1-year-old son, died Aug. 11 after he fell from a playscape at Baldwin Pond. Donations immediately began pouring into the Bourdon family so Christian and Sarah decided to donate it to the Make a Wish Foundation with the stipulation that they could choose the recipient. They later set up Noah's Ark of Hope, an organization to raise money for a playscape at Hubbard Park.
Soroka knew the Bourdons threw her years in Meriden and has been a member of the Trailblazer Hiking Club for a few years. Christian Bourdon is Meriden's recreation programs supervisor.
When the Bourdons heard of Gaetani's wish to swim with the dolphins, they knew they had found their recipient.
"We're just thrilled to have that local connection," Christian Bourdon said.
"Muriel is just a wonderful example of somebody who has been thrown more obstacles than the average person will see in their lives and she's just overcome them. I can understand when you deal with something as devastating as cancer, it's easy to throw your cards in and give up, but she's been a wonderful example for her granddaughter and for everyone else. We have nothing but the utmost respect for her."
But even as Gaetani has gotten back to her normal childhood, Soroka's ongoing struggle with cancer continued.
Her boyfriend, Art Gruhn of Middletown, was diagnosed with leukemia in January. He underwent successful stem cell transplant surgery last week at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
"I think responsibility is a good word," Soroka said of why she continues to be involved in Relay for Life. "We're all responsible to do whatever we can to make sure cancer is eradicated and under control. We've talked to the nurses and doctors at Dana-Farber and 10 years ago he would have died. Today he is going to live."
One of the most emotional events for Soroka at the Relay for Life is the luminaria ceremony, which will take place Friday at 9 p.m.
"I always thought of my husband and I still will, but I think that my granddaughter surviving is very special," she said of the ceremony. "There's a wonderful support. It's a wonderful support that you can only receive on this weekend every year.
"There's a very special bond," she said of the people at Relay for Life. "Every year, they all come back and we all want to be together for at least one more year. Many people think that surviving cancer means you're in remission and you don't have any cancer and that's not true. If you've lived one day from being diagnosed, you're a survivor."