On their bikes: Metricon raises more than $100,000 for young cancer sufferers

EARLY last Saturday morning 12 very keen Metricon employees embarked on a four-day Victorian bike ride, battling the elements to cover more than 450 kilometres to support young Australians living with cancer.

The ride is a fundraising initiative to complement the building company’s three-year charitable partnership with CanTeen – an organisation that supports youth impacted by a cancer diagnosis, be it their own or that of a family member.

Departing from CanTeen’s Flemington Road offices across the road from the Royal Children’s Hospital, the enthusiastic Metricon riders journeyed from Melbourne to Ballarat, then onto Lorne and over to Rye.

From Rye the final leg was to Metricon’s head office in Mt Waverley.

The cyclists also spent a well-earned pit stop from the wintery blast on Monday at Metricon’s Torquay display home, where riders were greeted by CanTeen ambassadors, who explained first-hand how they’ve benefited from CanTeen’s support.

With an average distance covered of over 100 kilometres per day in wet and cold weather, the ride was not without its challenges.

However, the cyclists are eager to bolster the $1 million contribution Metricon is making to CanTeen over the next three years with the knowledge that every extra dollar makes a difference to the life of a young Australian impacted by cancer

Metricon Homes’ Director and Victorian General Manager Peter Langfelder is one of the riders, and proud to be raising funds to improve outcomes for the 23,000 young Australians whose lives are impacted by cancer every year.

“I’m passionate about young people being able to live their best life and I’m also a big believer in the power of exercise to improve physical and mental wellbeing,” Mr Langfelder said.

“So, when the team suggested this ride to support CanTeen, I knew I had to be part of it.”

The team had a fundraising goal of $100,000, which they have surged past to see $110,000 raised.

This equates to providing nearly 1,500 free counselling sessions to help young people navigate through cancer.

At these sessions, they learn practical ways to move forward and deal with their emotions in a healthy way.

CanTeen chief executive officer Peter Orchard said this ride was a wonderful initiative by the Metricon Victorian team to raise extra funds for them, and an ideal way to kick off the threeyear partnership.

“We’re excited and grateful to have Metricon’s support, which will enable us to reach even more young people impacted by cancer and to respond quickly to their unique emotional, social and treatment needs.”