May 20, 2025
The 2025 South Burnett Relay For Life fundraising campaign has been officially launched with a breakfast hosted by South Burnett Mayor Kathy Duff in Nanango.
The actual relay will be held on October 11 at Kingaroy’s T.J. O’Neill Oval, the home of the Red Ants Rugby League Club, however fundraising has already started!
As of Tuesday, there was more than $29,100 listed on the South Burnett Relay page.
Cancer is a serious topic but the brekkie was not all doom and gloom.
Guest speaker was Commonwealth Games gold medallist and Olympic silver medallist, swimmer Taylor McKeown, who shared some amazing stories from her time at the Rio Olympics.
A video of her heat win at the games was screened while Relay For Life patron Carl Rackemann interviewed her on stage.
Who’d have thought that two Tim-Tams, a mug of Milo and muesli bar could be the breakfast of champions?
South Burnett Relay for Life chair Rowena Dionysius also spoke at the breakfast.
She said the South Burnett event was started 20 years ago by John Bjelke-Petersen and a small committee.
Over the years, the group had raised more than $2 million for Cancer Council Queensland.
It was also the 20th birthday for the Proston Angels fundraising team, one of the original supporters of South Burnett Relay For Life.
Proston Angels member Irene McDonald was sashed as this year’s Face of Relay and will lead the Survivors’ Walk on Relay Day.
Relay has always been well-supported in the South Burnett, probably because cancer has touched the lives of so many residents.
“Research has shown that 44 per cent of rural and remote people are less likely to live longer than five years (after cancer diagnosis),” Rowena said.
“They’re really trying hard to bring that back up to more than 44 per cent. That’s because we don’t have treatments here, we don’t have as much available to us as people in the city do.”
Sadly, there were now only four active Relays being held across Queensland this year, when there used to be more than 30.
“If we don’t keep supporting it, keep coming along, we won’t have it,” Rowena said.
She urged people to register or join a team online.
Mayor Duff recalled how her mother had died from stomach cancer in 2001, just three months after she was diagnosed.
“This is why we raise money, to give hope for the future because we want to be able to continue the research and try to find a cure for this horrible disease,” she said.
The breakfast also featured an auction of five of Carl Rackemann’s famous purple cricket balls which raised an amazing $2250.
And the South Burnett Mountain Bike Club’s Jason Wyeth invited cyclists to join the five-day Ride 4 Relay fundraiser around the South Burnett from August 26-30.
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