Honouring someone’s fight against any disease by running or walking to raise funds to prevent it is a worthy cause.
But when it’s the specific disease that took a loved one’s life, it feels even closer to the heart.
Mooroopna’s Angela Church lost her mum, Daphne Moore, to ovarian cancer in October, 2019, which is why she has signed up to do the 4km walk at this year’s Mother’s Day Classic.
“Each year since Mum died, I have been on a walk for ovarian cancer, but this is the first year that both breast and ovarian cancers are walking together (at the Mother’s Day Classic),” Ms Church said.
“I could not think of a better way to celebrate my mum or Mother’s Day than raising money to find a detection test and cure for ovarian cancer so others don’t have to go through the pain of watching their loved one die in front of them.”
Ms Church’s three children — Jessica, Ryan and James, who remember their grandmother as someone who put others before herself — are excited to join their mum at the Mother’s Day event.
The family had considered signing up for the Mother’s Day Classic in the past, but had never sealed the deal.
However, when the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation was added to the funding recipients, that ‘enter now’ button was enthusiastically clicked without a second thought.
“My mum was my rock,” Ms Church said.
“I still remember the day she told me about what the doctors had said — she made it sound like no big thing and she would fight it and win.
“I was upset and scared. You always think your mum will live for ever.”
That was in February 2019.
“It was hard watching her deteriorate. Her hair fell out and she became weak,” Ms Church said.
“She would tell us not to be sad as she would be around for years.”
Just months later she went into palliative care.
Three weeks after that, she had passed.
“‘This is not goodbye, but see you soon’, she would say,” Ms Church said.
The Church family hopes to raise at least $500 for the Mother’s Day Classic.
“Every little bit helps,” Ms Church says.
As cliched as that might sound, it is undoubtedly true.
• To donate to the Church family’s team: Mother's Day Classic Foundation - Angela Church (mothersdayclassic.com.au)