Rallying together for cancer research

TWO Inverleigh women are getting ready to travel from one end of Australia as part of an event raising funds for Cancer Council.

Throughout nine days in March, Jane Crook and Linda Smith will be one of more than 200 duos driving from Rockhampton to Hobart for the Shitbox Rally summer session.

Ms Smith first took part in the event in 2017 after seeing her husband Ralph participate and said it looked like a fun time for a good cause.

“He and a mate went from Mackay to Hobart in 2016,” she said. “I followed them on Facebook and they just went to all these great places you wouldn’t normally take your car to.

“His mate didn’t want to do it the next year so I jumped on and that was from Melbourne to Townsville.

“There’s a real camaraderie with it and there’s a pirate dress up on the Spirit of Tasmania which we’ll be doing.

“This year I thought it was a bit restricting going with the husband so why don’t I go with my girlfriend and that’s how Jane jumped on.”

Taking part under the team name Boobs and Baileys, the pair will set off in their 2001 Ford Falcon AU station wagon on Tuesday, 14 March to get up to Rockhampton for the rally’s start the following Friday.

Each team needs to donate a minimum of $5000 to enter the rally, with the Boobs and Baileys team having held their fundraising event at the Inverleigh Hotel last month.

Ms Crook is a breast cancer survivor of 11 years, and said it’s fantastic for her to contribute to research that helped save her life.

“Every year since 2015 I’ve done a fundraiser for cancer,” she said. “It’s been mainly small fry stuff.

“A friend and I did do a big thing though with Sam Johnson from Love Your Sister in 2017 and this seemed the next thing for me to do, like a natural progression.”

With three sessions running in summer, autumn and spring, the rally has raised about $35 million for Cancer Council since 2009.

The Boobs and Baileys fundraiser page can be found at bit.ly/3xTQ3KQ.