Tuscan trek for Perth cancer researchers
On the steep cobbled streets of medieval towns, past vineyards and over Tuscan hillsides, Anita Tancevski-Simpson will take a moment to acknowledge people who have been lost to cancer and undertake a walk that she hopes will help end the insidious disease.
Echoing pilgrims who have journeyed across Italy for centuries with a deep sense of purpose, Anita will walk with others in mind.
It will be the fourth time she has participated in the New Town Toyota Walk for Women’s Cancer to raise funds for cancer researchers in Perth at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, but the first in Italy. Each time she has done so knowing someone touched by the disease.
Anita completed the New Town Toyota Walk for Women’s Cancer during a family holiday to Italy.
“For the past three years I have completed the walk in Perth with a team of women, all of whom have a link to cancer. In fact, so many of the hundreds of others on the walk, had heartbreaking and inspiring cancer stories to share.
“But this year’s walk will just be with the support of my two little boys and my husband.
“We are in Italy, on our way to family in Macedonia, on a trip to celebrate my 40th, but that didn’t seem reason enough to pull out of the annual walk which has such a good cause.
“Very recently a young friend, she was only 25, died of cancer. It was so quick and utterly devastating.
“Anything that any of us can do to help researchers find more treatments, or even cures, must be worth doing” she said.
The marketing and communications consultant from Stirling has been raising funds each year for the cancer researchers at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research.
Last year’s New Town Toyota Walk for Women’s Cancer event raised over $1.4M to support ovarian cancer research, as well as research to identify and reactivate a new tumour suppressor in aggressive subtypes of breast cancer and ongoing research into a protein in honeybee venom that Harry Perkins Institute researchers discovered can kill breast cancer cells.
“What I love about raising money for the Perkins is that when you make a donation you can see that you’re actually contributing to the research, buying lab equipment or the like. It means more, because its local and you can see where your money is going.”
Anita (pictured, above) set off from the old town of Certaldo Alto which appropriately doesn’t permit cars, and walked over hills in the Chianti region of Tuscany, completing 35kms in beautiful Italian scenery.
Find out more about the New Town Toyota Walk for Women’s Cancer.
