SSTUWA - State School Teachers' Union of Western Australia

Woolworths Fresh Food Ride - Telethon Adventurers for Cancer

In an effort to find the cause and cure for cancer, ten cyclists from WA journeyed from Esperance to Perth to raise funds.

One of these cyclists was member Paul Dyson from Narrogin SHS who with many followers, managed to raise a noteworthy figure for the Ride for Elliot charity.

Four year old battler Elliot Parish was diagnosed with a brain tumour and succumbed to cancer on February 10 this year.

Rick and Emily Parish managed to raise more than $920,000 in his honour in a staggering 10 months. They purchased a molecular imaging machine for Princess Margaret Hospital’s oncology ward for children’s cancer research in hope of saving the lives of others.

Since then, Telethon Adventures have partnered with Woolworths to raise extra funds for the cause. All 83 Woolworth stores in WA were involved in the fundraising event along with managers and supporters.

Paul was one of the supporters, who endured the lengthy challenge and explained that Woolworths WA regional manager Brad Bolin had raised over $451,000 during the ride.

“When I spoke to Rick Parish he said to me that he had recently looked through the Telethon Adventurers financial statement and he noticed the large amount of donations under the name Dyson or Paul. He said the entries continued one after another and at one point he looked along the donation amount to see the sum of $1000 next to one donator. The total amount that was raised under my name is not really important because it is about working together on a common goal but you can rest assured that Rick had noticed just how many supporters I had,” said Paul.

Paul said people donate what they can afford and that’s all that matters.

“It's for our kids and for our kids, kids. The money you donated is not absorbed in costly administration fees and works to directly support the work Dr Fiona Stanley and her team do at the institute for childhood cancer research.”

“For me it's not the end of working to support the fight against cancer, it is just the beginning,” he said.