Relay fights back for life

Bunbury’s Relay for Life team have bucked Nationwide trends and smashed fundraising records, heading towards the $200,000 mark this year.

Some Relay for Life groups around Australia are struggling to maintain participants and increase funding.

But the Bunbury event had close to 700 participants this year and topped the fundraising record of $175,000, according to chairman Ben Andrew.

More than 68 teams spent 24 hours clocking up laps around the oval at Payne Park on the weekend.

The annual event sees participants camp overnight, with some soldiering on through the night into the morning, to raise funds for Cancer Council WA.

Mr Andrews said in two years they had managed to get the relay back to its golden days in terms of numbers and fundraising.

“Some relays are going backwards around Australia but we’ve actually turned it around in the last two years,” he said.

“The money raised in Bunbury stays in Bunbury because it helps to run places like Dot’s Place, supporting nurses, education officers and staff.

“It was an amazing atmosphere here at 2am in the morning we must of have 100-odd people still on the track, it was full.”

This year event organisers had a wall for people to write pledges on how they would reduce the risks of cancer including drinking less alcohol, eating healthier, exercising more and slip, slop, slapping in the sun.

One in two West Australians are diagnosed with cancer by age 85, according to Mr Andrew.

“There’s no one who isn’t affected by cancer and that’s why we have Relay for Life,” he said.

“We celebrate those going through the journey and who have survived and remember those who we’ve lost to cancer and we fight back.”