South Burnett communities unite to change the lives of Queenslanders affected by cancer.
Next Saturday, 12 October, join Cancer Council Queensland as they rally together to raise awareness and unite against cancer at the 2024 ‘Relay For Life.’ The event will be held at the Kingaroy Rugby League Grounds, TJ O’Neil Oval, Bunya Highway from 2-10pm.
Kingaroy and the South Burnett community can expect an action-packed day where teams of people will be keeping a baton moving in a relay style walk, run or roll for 8.5 hours to support those touched by cancer. Relay For Life is an event for everyone – no matter your age, or fitness level, you can get involved and make a difference.
Relay For Life is a Cancer Council Queensland initiative, bringing together communities across Queensland to support those who have been impacted by cancer, whilst celebrating cancer survivorship and honouring lost ones.
Cancer Council research shows by 2030, more than 350,000 Queenslanders will be living with cancer. More than 1,100 live in the Darling Downs and South Burnett regions, with around 650 people dying from the disease each year.
This year the South Burnett Relay for Life Committee is aiming to raise $150,000. All donations raised fund life-saving cancer research, prevention programs and support services to ensure no Queenslander is left navigating cancer alone.
In 2023 alone, donations provided more than 25,000 nights’ accommodation for cancer patients and their carers, counselling for more than 800 people and free wigs and turbans for more than 3,000 people.
South Burnett great-grandmother, Jan Lambourn, has been named the official face of the 2024 South Burnett Kingaroy Relay for Life event. Jan was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995 and declared cancer-free in 2000, only for it to return as stage 4 metastatic bone cancer in 2015. She was given a life expectancy of 3-5 years.
Jan remembers the first 4 years were a very depressing and painful time for her but a chance encounter during treatment in Toowoomba in 2019 changed everything.
“Back in 2019, I decided I was going to cease all treatment as I only had around 12 months to live. In walked two 7-year-old children, Kevie and Millie, to have chemo for leukaemia. That encounter with them changed my whole perspective. Instead of thinking ‘why me?’, I thought ‘Why not me instead of these two tiny kids?’”
Finishing treatment that day, Jan told her oncologists she was willing to try any new treatments he wanted. Kevie and Millie are now in remission, back at school, and loving life. Jan has now been living with cancer for 9 years and in April welcomed her first great- grandchild – a little girl named Millie.
Jan’s message to everyone is clear, “Hearing you have cancer is a traumatic shock, but it’s no longer a death sentence. Relay for Life is so important in raising funds to ensure ongoing research for all cancers. Without that research, I wouldn’t still be here.”
To find out more or to register for one of the Relay for Life events in 2024, visit, www.relayforlife.org.au or call 1300 65 65 85.
