Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday morning, the people of Bankstown will come together for 24 hours for a very important cause. We will remember all of those who have lost their battle with cancer and march with those who have survived to raise money for a cure for what is an indiscriminate and terrible disease.

The Bankstown Relay for Life is now in its seventh year. Last year we raised $82,000 and this year we hope to exceed that. Thanks to the generosity of the Bankstown Sports Club, the M5 Motorway, the Canterbury League Club and others, we have already hit $55,000. This is an event that brings the whole community together. There are teams from every part of the community. This year’s relay will include a huge entertainment program for the kids called Kids Day Out, a prestige car show and salsa dancing for the kids at heart. The night will culminate in a candlelit ceremony of hope, which is a special service to remember those we have lost to cancer.

The man behind the Relay for Life is Trent Engisch. Together with his father, John, and his brother, Christian, he makes this happen. Events like the Relay for Life do not happen without people like the Engischs. They are as much a part of the Bankstown community as Steve Waugh or Paul Keating. For the past 88 years they have published the Bankstown Torch, which is one of Sydney’s only family owned newspapers. They love Bankstown and they want to make it a better place to live. It is a cause I join them in.