Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have taken this opportunity, unexpected though it might be, to talk about the Cranbourne-Narre Relay for Life event that was conducted at the Casey athletic fields on Saturday 16 November. The Cranbourne-Narre Relay for Life is an event that raises money for cancer awareness, research and support. This event has been running for about eight years and it is a very successful event. It's a 20-hour walk around the Casey athletics track. There were 19 teams, as I recall, and they walked basically non-stop for that 20 hours to raise money for cancer awareness, for cancer research, for cancer treatment and for cancer support. I was privileged to be there at the opening ceremony and I went back a bit later on to walk around the track with some of the people who are cancer survivors and carers and those who support cancer survivors and carers.

One of the great things about this event was that it spoke to the need for people to be able to come together as a community to talk about cancer. Often that's not spoken about. What I really admired about the event that was auspiced by Jodie Hollis and the committee of the Cranbourne-Narre Relay for Life is that it brought together people for a common cause and raised $47,000 in doing so.