Alison Pike would have gotten a good laugh out of seeing the students of Canberra Grammar School in their pink regalia on Wednesday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In 2013, in the midst of her own breast cancer battle, she organised a few pink socks for her son Harry's soccer team and her daughter Annie's hockey team over at Canberra Girls Grammar School. She had no idea that five years later CGS would still be championing the cause, raising close to $50,000 in the meantime.
Pike lost her battle in 2015, but her spirit - and I knew her through our daughters - was evident yesterday as bright splashes of pink brightened up the staid school surroundings. Alison always brightened up the day for anyone she met, even when she was at her worst.
Boys and girls in pink sunglasses - this year's choice - as well as socks, beanies, scarves and ties from previous years, reminded everyone that almost everyone is touched by cancer.
In 2016 the school raised more than $11,000 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
In 2017 it decided to raise money for the University of Canberra Cancer Research Fund which supports the work of Dr Sudha Rao and her team who who are on the brink of significant advancements in the treatment of metastatic cancer.
Dr Robert McCuaig, part of the research team, spoke to the school, saying every donation made a difference to the research.
"It's not just the big massive funding that makes a difference," Dr McCuaig said.
"It's the small funding, the really small stuff, that adds together. Maybe it pays for that one experiment that maybe you wouldn't do that leads to a clinical trial.
"That's our story, back when Sudha first started it's that one experiment that led to the clinical trial we're about to start for metastatic breast cancer and has led to the work we're doing on melanoma and brain cancer and lung cancer.
"Every bit helps us to be able to ask the critical questions and build upon that."
Dr McCuaig said it's also crucial to engage students in the idea of research.
"In the end everything comes back to science," he said - a comment which would perhaps be welcomed by the school's science department.
"But if students are engaged and they're investing in it, maybe they'll be the ones to take future research to the next level."
Harry Pike, now in Year 11, said his mother would have enjoyed yesterday.
"I think she'd be happy, and maybe just a bit surprised, that it was still happening," he said.
The boys who organised the fund-raising day are all part of the International Baccalaureate program at the school. Two of them, brothers Miguel and Emman Salcedo, have also lost their mother to metastatic cancer.
Anyone who would like to donate to the UC Cancer Research Fund can do so at canberra.edu.au/cancer-research