LUKE'S STORY

'Roughly 4,000 Australians die from bowel cancer each year. I'm raising money for The Jodi Lee Foundation and all that they do to raise awareness and prevent bowel cancer. I’d love your support for running the ‘City to Bay’ half marathon in Adelaide on 15 Sept - a first for me and there’s not much time left to train!  

Why? Because my mum is being treated for bowel cancer at the moment.

This news caught me and the rest of my family wildly off guard - complicated by the fact Mum had just got a new job in Tasmania - and it had a massive emotional affect on me. She had a big operation in January and has just finished 6 months of chemo, then there’s another operation at the end of September. Hopefully then everything will be finished. 

It’s been a hard year but it's great that the free national screening test picked something up soon enough to be able to fix it and she’s going to be OK. Another reason for choosing this charity is that Nick Lee, who set up The JLF charity 9 years ago in memory of his wife Jodi who died of bowel cancer when she was just 41, is an old scholar of my school and he’s come and given talks like he does with lots of schools and companies. 

This is something I am really passionate about. If you are able to make a donation of any size, that would be fantastic. The more funds for the JLF, the more they can do to raise awareness and prevent bowel cancer. More people doing the test will mean more people being treated early and successfully. So please also spread the word by sharing my fundraising page as widely as possible. Whilst it may not seem like the greatest year for our family, we count ourselves as very lucky - all thanks to a free test. 

Thank you in advance for your support, it means a lot and will definitely keep me motivated me when I am getting tired during the run!'

Luke Robertson