A TOTAL of 16 teams took up the challenge from members of the Home Hill Tennis Association to “Rally for a Cure” with locals and visitors alike turning out to play continuously at the Home Hill tennis complex for 12 consecutive hours from 10am to 10pm on Saturday, August 13 to raise funds towards finding a cure for brain cancer.
With teams varying in numbers from six to twelve or more, their efforts resulted in large amounts of money being raised towards the work of the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation, the leading organisation for brain cancer research, advocacy and awareness in Australia.
Those teams included one from Tennis Queensland and another from the Gold Coast while the Cancer Ward of the Townsville University Hospital staff were also amongst the numbers supporting the event.
The day featured a variety of activities including raffles for valuable prizes and an innovative game called “Pickle Ball’, which is tennis played on a half court, as the participants remembered a former Home Hill Tennis Life Member, Tennis Queensland Board member and Burdekin Shire Citizen of the Year, Col Casswell who lost his battle with the disease last
year.
The fundraising was led by Col’s wife, Kate, who revealed that towards the end of August, their efforts had reached a total of $22,000 with more money still coming in.
There was a challenge from Thomas Clive if he raised $1000, with Kate Casswell saying she believed his total had reached $3000; $7600 came from auctions and raffles of memorabilia from international tennis players such as Ash Barty and Rafael Nadal and $2000 from the Groper Creek Rural Fire Brigade donation.
With most of the prizes on the day donated, Kate Casswell said 100 per cent of the money raised on the day would be going to the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation.
