Childhood mates Mat Lindsay and Ben Hall will travel more than 2,500 kilometres across the country to raise money for children with disabilities, chronic illness, or who face financial hardship.

“It’s great to be able to raise money for sick and disadvantaged children,” Mr Hall said.

“I had a good friend of mine who lost his 4-year-old child to cancer.

“It made me think of how lucky I am to have my three healthy kids and I really wanted to help out.”

Mr Lindsay became involved after his wife was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 29.

“During the process of going to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre we saw so many sick children in the waiting rooms,” Mr Lindsay said.

“And we always said if we were able to get to the point where we could give back to the community we would help out.

“I just want to help the kids and being the parent of two young children myself, it pulls on the old heart strings and this is my chance to give back.”

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The pair will be driving a VC Holden commodore decorated with the decals of Lightning McQueen from the animated movie Cars, which they have been required to modify so the vehicle will suit the roads required to drive on for the journey.

On August 23 the pair will depart from Geelong with Townsville as the final destination.

Before embarking they need to raise $7000 which they aim to do through a community fundraising event on Thursday night at the Bendigo Stadium starting at 6pm.

There will be auctions with sports memorabilia and a range of smaller prizes which have been donated by local businesses.

The Bendigo Stadium will donate 30 per cent from all meal sales on the night.

The Variety Bash was first held in 1985 when entrepreneur Dick Smith led a group of motorists from Bourke, NSW to Bourketown, QLD, raising $250,000.