	{"id":110258,"date":"2025-02-21T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=110258"},"modified":"2025-02-19T23:10:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T12:10:42","slug":"riding-event-raises-fecri-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/riding-event-raises-fecri-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"Riding event raises FECRI funds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LAKE Wendouree and the Ballarat region was a haven for cyclists last weekend.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, hi-vis-clad volunteers cheered on bike riders as they completed courses ranging from six to 160 kilometres as part of the Fiona Elsey Cancer Research Institute&#8217;s (FECRI) major annual fundraiser, the Ballarat Cycle Classic.<\/p>\n<p>The event raised $320,166.<\/p>\n<p>At Windmill Drive, live music and food trucks awaited cyclists as they took a well-deserved respite following a morning ride through town.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, there were also activities at Creswick&#8217;s Hammon Park as part of the program.<\/p>\n<p>The Cycle Classic is in its 18th year, and FECRI&#8217;s honorary director Professor George Kannourakis participated in both the six-kilometre lake walk with his family and the 18-kilometre birthday loop of the lake.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every registration that goes through, whether people walking or riding, goes to cancer research,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve raised about $3.2 million up to now and after today we&#8217;ll certainly be over $3.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s definitely our biggest fundraiser. We have 16 scientists that work in the institute and it costs about $3 million to run each year so we rely on community support.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>FECRI scientists have published about 13 academic articles in international publications over the last 12 months.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Byrne has been taking part in the Cycle Classic every year since its inception.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038 \" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/02\/IMG20250216115933_80033.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stephen Byrne has been riding in the Cycle Classic every year since its inception.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Riding as one of four people in the BJT Legal team, he took part in the 60-kilometre ride incorporating Mount Buninyong, and said the event is an important one to continue backing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We love fitness and supporting the cause,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Everyone&#8217;s touched with cancer and what George and the team do is fantastic.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve had a touch of cancer myself. I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma 10 years ago which is in remission, but unfortunately it&#8217;s not a curable disease at this stage.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With a lot of cancers, they&#8217;re making significant inroads and that&#8217;s the sort of stuff George is into also.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need people like him to bring these things to the forefront and that&#8217;s what they&#8217;re doing with the Ballarat community.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With a focus on how cancer affects the immune system, Professor Kannourakis said he hopes to announce developments made by the team at FECRI later this year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We may have the ability to find the Achilles heel of all aggressive cancers, which is really big,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That means we might be able to treat anyone&#8217;s cancers with something to block a particular protein, which is something new.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LAKE Wendouree and the Ballarat region was a haven for cyclists last weekend. On Sunday, hi-vis-clad volunteers cheered on bike riders as they completed courses ranging from six to 160 kilometres as part of the Fiona Elsey Cancer Research Institute&#8217;s (FECRI) major annual fundraiser, the Ballarat Cycle Classic. The event raised $320,166. At Windmill Drive, [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/riding-event-raises-fecri-funds\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":110263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-110258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Riding event raises FECRI funds - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Ballarat Cycle Classic raised $320,166 for cancer research. Cyclists rode up to 160 km, supporting FECRI&#039;s vital work in cancer treatment advancements.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/riding-event-raises-fecri-funds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Riding event raises FECRI funds - Ballarat Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Ballarat Cycle Classic raised $320,166 for cancer research. Cyclists rode up to 160 km, supporting FECRI&#039;s vital work in cancer treatment advancements.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/riding-event-raises-fecri-funds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ballarat Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-20T17:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/02\/Untitled-design69.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Bottams\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Bottams\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/riding-event-raises-fecri-funds\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/riding-event-raises-fecri-funds\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tim Bottams\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ef2cb0351151f52788a4263e854228dc\"},\"headline\":\"Riding event raises FECRI funds\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-20T17:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/riding-event-raises-fecri-funds\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":440,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/riding-event-raises-fecri-funds\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/Untitled-design69.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/riding-event-raises-fecri-funds\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/riding-event-raises-fecri-funds\\\/\",\"name\":\"Riding event raises FECRI funds - Ballarat Times\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/riding-event-raises-fecri-funds\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/riding-event-raises-fecri-funds\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/Untitled-design69.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-20T17:00:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Ballarat Cycle Classic raised $320,166 for cancer research. 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