We are really pleased to announce that we're taking part in Shitbox Rally 2023 Autumn!! This year, all the teams are driving their shitboxes from Newcastle to Townsville.
We are doing the rally primarily in memory of our beautiful angel Mum, Mary-Lou Halkett-Hay, who we lost to Stage 4 Melanoma in May 2021. We will be starting the rally on the second anniversary of her receiving her wings.
May is Melanoma Awareness month. It is the month that Mum was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma in 2015. It is also the month that she passed away from melanoma six years later in 2021. It is the month I remind and encourage my friends to #getaskincheck.
So many times throughout her journey people would say to us “it’s just skin cancer, they will cut it out and she will be fine”.
I wish I’d kept better records of Mum’s 12+ year journey of melanoma. Let me recount what I remember so people stop thinking of melanoma of “just skin cancer”.
Six months later she had a “pineapple” growing back in that spot. Misdiagnosed as keloid scarring, she luckily moved and found the most amazing surgeon in Dr James Gaffield who diagnosed the recurrent melanoma. Dr Gaffield removed the tumour including most of her nose. I think she had 5 or 6 reconstructive surgeries following that. Part of that was folding her forehead down to reconstruct her nose. See the ”penis” on her nose pic. Mum always dealt with every challenge with humour (something not everyone got). She would wear the paper bag when out with Dad.
Just before our wedding in 2012, Dr Gaffield noticed swelling in her cheek. He did a biopsy that was negative, trusting his gut he did another that was also negative. He then did an open biopsy which revealed the melanoma had come back this time in the nerve running from her cheek behind her eye into the brain. This was beyond his specialty and he found a surgical team in Brisbane willing to perform the surgery. This was followed by six weeks of radiation. Marilyn the radiation mask didn’t have a cover on her right eye. I can only assume because they needed access to that area to treat any remaining cancer cells. They hit her eye with the radiation. This resulted in weeks of eye infections, eventually two failed cornea transplants and eventually the removal of her cornea. She had a prosthetic and learnt to deal with the challenges of suddenly having only one eye. One of the impacts was loss of balance and this is when her falls started.
When I came home with Scarlett as a 3 month old, Mum had a fall and hurt her arm. It never got better and she eventually had an X-ray that revealed a break. She was still under the care of Dr Panizza and was due for her routine six month MRI which she was given the all clear in the morning. She saw an orthopedist surgeon in the afternoon who revealed her arm was broken due to a tumour growth in the bone. He did a PET scan that revealed tumours in her brain, clivus, C5 (spine), liver, kidneys, pancreas and lungs. To say it was a cluster fuck of epic proportions of who was reading her previous MRI’s would be an understatement. She was estimated to have 3-6 months to live at that point.
She started on the first real immunotherapy called Yervoy. She reacted badly and was going downhill fast. It was killing her faster than the cancer. Her oncologist got her expedited onto the first group of patients on Keytruda, an immunotherapy now being used to treat 23 different types of cancer but initially developed for melanoma. She immediately improved with massive reduction to her tumours. This treatment was so effective that it was only really one tumour of concern left in her liver. It was in quadrant 4b and inoperable. She had from memory 3 lots of radiation to reduce it during her six years of treatment. That is the tumour that eventually caused liver failure and killed her.
I’m forever grateful to Dr Gaffield who undoubtedly saved her many times. I’m angry at the other medical failures and hope no one else experiences this.
The message here is #getaskincheck, be your own or loved ones health advocate. Melanoma isn’t “just skin cancer”.
Shitbox Rally is the largest community lead fundraiser for the Cancer Council in Australia and is now in its 13th year. Part of the participation is that all teams have to raise a minimum of $5,000 but most teams raise well above this amount as you can see with the 2023 Autumn rally target set at $2,000,000 plus.
These funds go to the Cancer Council and we are extremely proud to be doing our part to support such a worthy charity. The fundraising is the hard part, so any donation you can give is greatly appreciated. Please make sure to follow our progress via this page and the blog post below
Shitbox Rally is the adventure of a lifetime challenging participants and their cars, worth no more than $1,500, on a 7 day drive across Australia to raise money for cancer research.
The rally is not a race – it’s a fun, colourful, unpredictable adventure with participants travelling at their own pace in smaller groups. Vehicles often break down but “we never leave anyone behind” and each night is spent camping beneath the stars and celebrating the day’s achievements. It all adds up to an incredible opportunity to see Australia’s vast and beautiful countryside and make lifelong friends, many brought together after experiencing cancer themselves or seeing cancer impact family and friends.
Since it’s inception the rally has been the largest fundraiser for the Cancer Council nationally.
Shitbox Rally is a dedicated fundraising event for cancer research with funds going to Cancer Council.
Cancer Council is one of the largest non-government funders of cancer research in Australia. We conduct and fund research studies across all cancers and all stages of the cancer journey.
Thanks to the community funds raised such as Shitbox Rally we can fund world-class research that reduces the impact of cancer for everyone.
$41 million over the past 13 years has been raised by Box Rallies to date, supporting ground-breaking projects such as:
These projects wouldn’t be possible without your support.
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