Mingara Relay For Life is a community fundraising event for Cancer Council and a way to celebrate survivorship, remember loved ones lost and fight back against cancer.
Teams of friends, families and colleagues raise money in the lead-up to an overnight event, where team members can take turns walking around a track to signify that cancer never rests, so neither do we.
Organised by passionate, local volunteers, Relay For Life is a fun and moving experience and is a chance for the community to recognise and celebrate local cancer survivors, those going through a cancer experience and their carers, to honour and remember loved ones lost and to raise money to help save more lives.
Relay For Life is set to take place across Saturday and Sunday, November 12 and 13.
With one in two Australians diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, Mingara Relay For Life Volunteer Committee member, Ray Davidson, hopes the community can embrace the importance of Relay. “Relay for Life was initially important to me to honour and remember a family member who succumbed to cancer,” he said.
“It was then to raise awareness and funds for research and then it was important for me as someone who was diagnosed with cancer to be around others who were also going through what I was,” Davidson said.
Relay For Life events are held across Australia, with more than 134,000 participants raising over $14M each year.
Every dollar raised goes towards funding Cancer Council’s vital research, prevention, and support programs, many of which help locals like Ray in the community every day.
Mingara Relay For Life Volunteer Committee Chair, Gleness Rowe, said she participated in memory of her niece who at 32 received a cancer diagnosis.
“While we supported her through her treatment and helped out with the children, I felt I needed to do more,” she said.
“A friend told me about Mingara Relay for Life and what an amazing event that raised funds for Cancer Council here on the Coast.
“Cancer doesn’t happen to one person, it happens to an entire family and I could see firsthand the need to support families dealing with a cancer diagnosis.”
All funds raised go towards Cancer Council. Underpinned by research, 61,000 Australian lives have been saved by improvements in cancer prevention, screening, and treatment over the past 20 years. With an estimated 134,000 new cases of cancer expected to be diagnosed in Australia this year, we need every Australian to rally behind Relay For Life to help continue this vital work.
Be part of the movement and join Relay For Life today – www.relayforlife.org.au
Source:
Media release, Aug 15
Cancer Council