The dedication of a terminally ill mother has helped raise more than $31,000 for the Love Your Sister charity.
Event organiser Annaliese Szocs partnered with Gold Logie winning actor Samuel Johnson OAM and his charity, Love Your Sister, to deliver a Family Fun Day at Geelong Racing Club on July 3.
The day provided both a fantastic outing for Greater Geelong families and a significant boost to cancer charity Love Your Sister’s scientific research fund.
What sets this event apart from your typical fundraiser, is that Annaliese organised it while she and her daughter were both extremely unwell with COVID-19.
There was also the challenge of sitting in a treatment chair in the Chemotherapy Day Unit Andrew Love Cancer Centre receiving fortnightly targeted therapy treatments, and the resulting side effects, to work around.
And if that wasn’t enough, it was the first large-scale event Annaliese had organised since working in hotel sales and marketing in New Zealand 20 years ago.
“Love Your Sister is the only Cancer Charity in Australia where 100 percent of all donations goes to scientific research,” she said.
“Samuel Johnson and his team are such wonderful, inspiring people and I am incredibly honoured to have had the privilege of organising this event on their behalf. It was a massive challenge, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
“Samuel’s sister Connie wanted to ensure that no other family goes through the pain of losing a loved one to cancer, and I’m here to help make that happen.”
Annaliese received a shock Stage 4 bowel cancer diagnosis in April 2020 at the age of 42.
Having lost her own mother to bowel cancer when she was 11, Annaliese was determined that her daughter Zita, 4, would not face the same fate.
“Cancer is cancer, no matter where it starts in the body,” she said.
“It is an evil disease that destroys families, lives, and dreams.
“I am incredibly grateful to everyone who supported the Love Your Sister events over the weekend, and to every single person who attended the Family Fun Day.
“The large number of people who came to that event really does show Geelong at its best making a real difference to the lives of people with cancer and their families.”
