Hello beautiful people and thanks for sharing this amazing journey with us! For those who don't know, Luke and I (Carlos) have been close friends since meeting on a fateful day in 2003 at a Groove Armada concert in Clapham Common, London. Despite the many great times, holidays, business ventures and generally living the dream, something would change the vibe one morning in December 2014. Luke drove me to the appointment because I was feeling like crap, and that was the day my doctor told me I had cancer.
Nothing prepares you for that moment, but in my case, friends and family stepped up to rally (pardon the pun) around me. Fortunately my cancer was very treatable even though it was diagnosed at a pretty late stage. What followed was the most amazing 12 months of my life, I really mean it. I am one of the lucky ones having had access to excellent healthcare and a support structure that was so loving and caring. To this day I don't really know how I will ever repay that. The nursing and oncology staff that took care of me at El Camino Hospital in California. My colleagues at Aruba where I worked who took on my workload at the drop of a hat no questions asked. Friends and family from the local area and around the world that came to visit and look after me, take me to chemo, give me booster shots at home (eeeek!) and generally keeping my spirits up.
Then there was Luke. He was there when the shit really went down in the beginning, right through to where I am today.
So you might have worked out by now that the story has a happy ending. After much love, a radical lifestyle change, chemo and radio therapy I was well on my way to recovery and leading a normal life. With each year that passed, the tests were less frequent until one day in 2018 I was officially in remission. Woooohooooooo!
In addition to my story, I know Luke`s family have had their own experiences - as have many of you reading this. The more you speak to people, the more you realise how many of us have similar experiences and just how much we all have in common.
So now its time for us to give back and support such an amazing cause....and we need you! We are really pleased to announce that we're taking part in Shitbox Rally 2022 Autumn!! This year, all the teams are driving their shitboxes from Wollongong to Mackay.
Shitbox Rally is the largest community led fundraiser for the Cancer Council in Australia and is now in its 12th year. Part of the participation is that all teams have to raise a minimum of $5,000 but most teams raise well above this amount as you can see with the 2022 Autumn rally target set at $2,500,000.
These funds go to the Cancer Council and we are extremely proud to be doing our part to support such a worthy charity. The fundraising is the hard part, so any donation you can give is greatly appreciated. Please make sure to follow our progress via this page and the blog post below!
Shitbox Rally is the adventure of a lifetime challenging participants and their cars, worth no more than $1,500, on a 7 day drive across Australia to raise money for cancer research.
The rally is not a race – it’s a fun, colourful, unpredictable adventure with participants travelling at their own pace in smaller groups. Vehicles often break down but “we never leave anyone behind” and each night is spent camping beneath the stars and celebrating the day’s achievements. It all adds up to an incredible opportunity to see Australia’s vast and beautiful countryside and make lifelong friends, many brought together after experiencing cancer themselves or seeing cancer impact family and friends.
Since it’s inception the rally has been the largest fundraiser for the Cancer Council nationally.
Shitbox Rally is a dedicated fundraising event for cancer research with funds going to Cancer Council.
Cancer Council is one of the largest non-government funders of cancer research in Australia. We conduct and fund research studies across all cancers and all stages of the cancer journey.
Thanks to the community funds raised such as Shitbox Rally we can fund world-class research that reduces the impact of cancer for everyone.
$41 million over the past 13 years has been raised by Box Rallies to date, supporting ground-breaking projects such as:
These projects wouldn’t be possible without your support.
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