Matthew L, Canberra Times Fun Run

“My reasons for doing the Canberra Times Fun Run and raising money are that I wanted to raise money for Bowel Cancer Australia as my grandfather was diagnosed in 2009 with bowel cancer, he was fortunate and beat the cancer; however, in 2017, my grandmother, the wife of my grandfather, who beat bowel cancer earlier, was diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer and sadly passed away in July of 2018 as a result.

Bowel cancer has impacted our family tremendously, and I think it’s vitally important that as much awareness be raised as possible regarding the cancer! It can be detected so early and easily that many people should be made aware of this fact!

I ran with the thought of my grandmother watching on for the whole race!

The race went really well; unfortunately, my training was less than ideal due to dislocating my ankle very early on in the training block and then injuring ligaments in my other ankle. However, I was still able to run the 10k in under an hour with a time of 56 minutes and 14 seconds, not my fastest, but with a less than ideal prep and still injured, I was very happy to come in well under 60 minutes!” ~ Matthew.

Warmest thanks for choosing to raise funds and awareness for Bowel Cancer Australia, Matthew. What a lovely way to honour your grandmother and grandfather.

Your support is greatly appreciated and will have a direct impact, helping to save lives and improve the health and wellbeing of people living with bowel cancer.

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If you were inspired by the Matthew’s amazing fundraising efforts and would like to support Bowel Cancer Australia through a community fundraiser please get in touch with us through our webform.