“A team full of survivors” is how Bendigo sporting identity John Forbes described his Relay for Life companions as he prepared for the all-night event at the La Trobe University athletics complex on Friday.
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The 75-year-old, who was one of hundreds to take part in the health fundraiser in Bendigo, is also a cancer survivor.
The bowel disease with which he was diagnosed in 2009 almost took his life.
“It’s an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” Mr Forbes said.
Despite battling Parkinson’s Disease, he planned on making at least six laps around the track tonight and said he would spend the time thinking about friends from his oncology ward who were not as lucky.
“Old, young, single, rich, poor: there's no discrimination with Mr Cancer.”
His wife, Fay, had since defeated the same disease.
Team captain Sue Holt’s life had been repeatedly touched by cancer; as a 17-year-old girl, she lost her mother to the disease, and it
Her father also died from the disease four years later.
She said her grief informed her work as a nurse, with lived experience of cancer equipping her for hard conversations with other families fighting illness.
“A lot of the time they feel isolated and don't feel able to share their feelings,” Ms Holt said.
“Someone who's not going through it really can't relate to what they’re going through.”
It was her second year taking part in the relay and her team’s size doubled in 2017.
School groups taking part in the round-the-clock cancer fundraiser proved young people are not immune from either disease or kindness.
A Relay for Life team from Wedderburn College were rallied to take part in the event by student Lauren Van De Wetering.
Lauren, who was completing the course for the second consecutive year, said she was repeating the feat for her aunt, Sonya, who died from cancer.
“It kind of gets better each year,” she said of her grief.
“But once you do [the relay], you’ll do it every year until you’re in a wheelchair – and even then you’ll roll around,” Lauren said.
Five teachers signed on to support the class of VCAL students, while Wedderburn residents were generous with their donations, something the captain said was customary for her small hometown.
Crusoe College and Girton Grammar were among other schools to take part in the event that offers friends and families – as well as carers and survivors – the opportunity to reflect on how cancer has impacted their lives.
Event secretary Tara Everist said it took nine months to plan the annual walk and she thanked the dozens of volunteers who were on hand to make sure the relay ran smoothly.