Pedal to Paradise raises funds for childhood cancer

A CONVOY of 30 cyclists arrived in Byron Bay this week as part of Pedal to Paradise, a charity ride aiming to raise $300,000 for the Children’s Cancer Institute.

The 9th annual Ride for Lily began in Port Macquarie on April 6 and is travelling 1000 kilometres, arriving at Noosa on April 12.

In July 2013, Tony Hester’s eight-year-old daughter Lily was diagnosed with an extremely rare liver cancer and passed away in August 2014. Shortly after her passing, her mother, Sianne, was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer and passed away in 2016.

 

Hester established the Live for Lily Foundation in 2016 to find a cure for childhood cancer. The foundation has since raised over $2 million for childhood cancer research.

This masthead spoke with Hester as he was travelling from Albury to the ride’s starting point in Port Macquarie, as other riders were driving and flying in to join him.

“We’ve got riders coming from as far as Detroit, Michigan – it’s amazing,” Hester said.

 

“We’ve got two riders from the North Island of New Zealand and others from the Central Coast, Canberra, and Melbourne; they’re from all over.”

Hester will be joined by his 18-year-old son Oliver, who is on his fourth ride. The ride takes a different route every year, and this year’s choice of the Northern NSW coast was easy.

“We think it’s going to be a great ride,” Hester said.

 

“We always used to holiday as a family up there and love the East Coast.

“We’ve travelled throughout the region, and the hinterland roads are beautiful mountain environments, perfect rolling hills, challenging and easy rides, and then out to the coast. It’s a perfect route.”

The foundation guarantees that 100 per cent of funds raised will go directly to the research. Each rider pays their own way, around $1000 to cover expenses plus their travel, and is committed to raising a minimum of $5000 each.

 

In his 15th year of running the foundation, Hester is keenly involved in the science and believes that cures for different cancers are on the horizon.

“I think we’ll see cures generally. I had testicular cancer, and if that happened in the 1980s, I would be 100 per cent dead. Nowadays, after three months of chemo, I was 100 per cent cured. That’s incredible.

 

“I believe we’ll see cures for kids’ cancers in our lifetime. I don’t think we’ll cure every cancer, but leukaemia had a survival rate of about 4 per cent 40 years ago, and survival is now higher than 80 per cent, right?”

The 2025 Ride for Lily has raised $184,603 at the time of writing.

To find out more about the foundation or to support the cause, visit liveforlily.org.au