Cancer research is not an abstract cause for the staff at Galston Medical Centre — it is personal. Several members of the team have watched family or friends go through breast or ovarian cancer, and that history was on their minds on May 10th as they ran the Mother’s Day Classic through the Sydney CBD and Domain.
This was the second year the practice had entered a team in the event, and this time round something unusual happened: every single runner posted a personal best over the 10km course. Staff put it down to a mix of preparation, good weather, and the encouragement runners gave each other along the way — the kind of thing that turns a fundraiser into something closer to a shared experience.
Money for the cause came in steadily in the lead-up to the event, with patients, local sponsors, and runners’ own families and friends contributing. By the time the team crossed the finish line, they had raised $3,500 for breast and ovarian cancer research. It is not a figure that will make headlines, but for a small medical practice relying on its own community, staff described it as a source of real pride.
The morning ended the way Mother’s Day mornings often do — with breakfast. The team sat down together after the run, sunburnt and pleased with their times, to mark both the occasion and the effort that had gone into getting there. For a group of people who spend their working lives caring for patients, running for a cause that has touched so many of those same patients felt, they said, like a natural extension of the job.
Galston Medical Centre has already committed to fielding a team again next year.
