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A warehouse party in Bendigo has raised more than $12,000 for cancer research.
Organiser Sara Collins said more than 150 people attended the event at Stock and Station warehouse in Bendigo on Friday night.
The event, in support for Fish for Life, smashed its $10,000 fundraising goal.
“I was just so thrilled with how it turned out,” Ms Collins said.
Highlights of the evening included speeches by Fish for Life founder Mark Ratchford and leukaemia survivor Dane Sheppard.
“I was holding back tears with both of them,” Ms Collins said.
Mr Ratchford spoke about the inspiration for his initiative – the loved ones he and his family had lost to the disease.
He will attempt to boat and fish his way around Australia from June 19, raising $500,000 for cancer research in the process.
The money will be donated to each destination’s nearest Cancer Council state branch, which Mr Ratchford said was a first.
Cancer Council Victoria will receive the money from the warehouse party in Bendigo.
Mr Sheppard said raising money and awareness of cancer research was what had motivated him to speak at the event.
“Without wonderful foundations such as Fish for Life supporting research, I might not be alive and neither might many others,” he said.
Last year, Cancer Council Victoria spent $41 million on cancer research, prevention and support.
Cancer Council Victoria head of fundraising Andrew Buchanan said funds raised by Fish for Life would go towards research projects like that of Professor Philip Hogg.
He and his team at the University of New South Wales are developing a molecule that inhibits the use of sugar in cancer tumors by deactivating a key component of the cell’s mitochondria.
“Because this revolutionary new drug targets cancer cells selectively and leaves other cancer cells alone, I believe it could be more effective than chemotherapy and allow patients to live a relatively normal life during treatment,” Professor Hogg told Cancer Council.
Cancer Council has provided more than $2 million to support his research over the past five years.
The drug has yet to be approved for general use and is the subject of ongoing clinical trials.