Marion Boyd is fighting her second cancer battle and wants a Breast Cancer Network Australia pink netball and football day to be an annual event.
COLAC’S Marion Boyd is fighting her second cancer battle and knows the importance of raising awareness of the disease.
Mrs Boyd says last weekend’s Breast Cancer Network Australia pink netball and football day should be an annual event.
The Western Eagles Football and Netball Club charity day raised almost $3000 for the network.
Mrs Boyd said the event was also important in building awareness about the disease.
“I’m going to try and make this an annual thing for the Western Eagles,” she said.
“It was just so good to see young netballers racing to buy the shoelaces and put them straight in their shoes and put the pink armbands on,” she said.
“It was great, it was fantastic just to see that and not to have to push to sell them, they came and bought them.”
Mrs Boyd, who cares for her son Jackson who suffers from cerebal palsy, said cancer had claimed the lives of her father, aunt and two uncles.
Doctors first diagnosed Mrs Boyd in 2009 and she thought she had beaten the disease after successful rounds of hormone therapy.
But the cancer returned earlier this year and doctors are treating Mrs Boyd at Geelong’s Andrew Love Cancer Centre.
“Even though mine’s not a critical one, there are lots down there and there are lots that are Colac people down there,” Mrs Boyd said.
“It’s a real eye opener when you get there.”
Mrs Boyd said raising money for breast cancer research was crucial to ease the pressure on families affected by the disease.
“I know people who come from Camperdown to go to Geelong and it’s a whole day it’s not just one hour and you’re done, it’s a whole day that you have to go there,” she said.
“You have to have parking, there’s petrol, there’s food and in my case I’ve got to find somebody to pick me up or babysit or whatever.
“So it’s a lot of stress, if we can cut that stress out a little bit by raising money then that’s a good thing.”
“There are a lot of sufferers out there,” Mrs Boyd
said.
“It’s mums that have got newborns or mums that are pregnant and to see little ones that haven’t even had a life yet get it; it’s hard.
“There was someone on Sunrise last week who left a three-year old, she lost her battle with cancer.
“There’s Jim Stynes – there’s just so many and it’s not just women it’s men as well.”
Mrs Boyd will contact clubs about her plans for an annual fundraiser.
