Kylee Huard, Jason Ferrario, Rhys Diggins, Michael Diggins and Lisa Harris.
On Saturday, five Junee locals (Jason, Kylee, Michael, Rhys and Lisa) participated in The Big Three Trek 5.0 through the Mark Hughes Foundation, honouring those they’ve lost to brain cancer and raising money for a cure. They have raised money through many different avenues including a raffle with $10k worth of prizes. Ticket sales exceeded $16k and were combined with cash donations. Already they are getting ready for next year’s trek.
Raffle prize winners are:
1st Prize: Sandra Cooper
2nd Prize: Caleb Sainsbury
3rd Prize: Tammie Speers
4th Prize: Kylie Perry
5th Prize: Ty Hardy
6th Prize: Tom Kohlhagen
7th Prize: Trent Charlton
8th Prize: Harrison’s Joinery
9th Prize: Andrew Sweeney
10th Prize: Pip Honner
11th Prize: Nathan Smith
12th Prize: Jo & Terry Judd
13th Prize: Ray Taylor
14th Prize: Deb Slinger
15th Prize: Erin Irvin
16th Prize: Jordan Walker
17th Prize: Cathy Passlow
18th Prize: Nichole Scott
Jason Ferrario was part of the Junee crew and said it was an awesome, but impactful experience.
“I was lucky enough to go in 2024, which was edition 4.0 and for me, 5.0 was even better. I was lucky enough to have my sister Kylee walk alongside me and to also share the experience with Michael, Rhys and Lisa,” he said.
“We were blessed this year with perfect weather conditions, apart from a shower on the last day, and the pure joy of the five of us walking into McDonald Jones Stadium was amazing and a lap of honour of the stadium is one of those moments in life that we all won’t ever forget.
“The fact that we did the walk with four brain cancer warriors, one of them who’s currently in remission, was special. There’s another one that was diagnosed eight years ago and she has restricted vision. She’s a true inspiration, she has a slice cooking business. She does that with limited sight. Those two are very inspirational. The two guys that were walking with us have brain cancer, one of them has recently finished chemotherapy, but the other one, Dave Marchant, is in the middle of his second round of chemo.
On the second morning, as we were all getting ready, putting our shoes and socks and clothes and stuff on, Dave was swallowing that day’s round of chemo medication.
“Something like that just opened your eyes to how lucky you are and how important it is that we try to find a cure for brain cancer. Dave walked the whole way.
In fact, at some stages he ran, and it’s just truly inspirational and you don’t even think about whether you’re getting tired because of the inspiration you are surrounded by.
“On the first day, Mark Hughes joined us for the last five k’s and then greeted us at breakfast on the second morning and gave us a bit of a speech, and I’ll tell you what, after Mark has finished his five-minute speech, all the hairs are certainly standing up on the back of your neck.”
Jason spoke about the feeling the entire crew felt when crossing the finish line outside the stadium.“For the last kilometre of the walk, family and friends are invited to join in. Kylee was greeted by her two daughters and our nephew. Lisa, much to her surprise, saw her husband, daughter, two sons and one of their mates were there to greet her and she didn’t even know about it, so that was cool.
“When you do cross that finish line, Mark Hughes is there to greet you and there’s a wonderful support crew that come along with us, so they drive the vans that have our buckets, that has our change of shoes and warmer clothes and all of the food and snacks and drinks and they’re all there at the finish line waiting for us.
“You do become part of what we refer to as “the track family”. We are ingrained now in the track family.
“We are already talking about going again next year and how we are going to fundraiser.
“Once you do get to the ground, we wait until the reserve grade fixture is over and then we do a lap of the ground.
“There’s a presentation to Mark Hughes on behalf of the Foundation for the money that is raised and it’s an amazing moment, everyone in the crowd standing on their feet, cheering us and we’re doing that lap of honour together and it’s something you never forget and I can’t wait to do it again.
“On behalf of us all, we want to thank everybody who donated prizes, purchased tickets, made cash donations, and supported us through our journey. There are businesses in Junee that put their hand up to sell tickets for us, Junee Bakery, Brew at 102, the Commercial Hotel and Movies Plus, a big shout out to them for selling the tickets for us.
“A further shout out to the IGA at Junee who donated 40 kilograms of party mix lollies, which are handed out along the track for a sugar hit. To Shanea nd his team, that was extremely well received.
“A further shout out to the Commercial Hotel because amongst the many, many donations as part of their Joker Poker draw on a Friday night, they gave us the proceeds of ticket sales on the Friday before, which was $1,000.
“A heartfelt thank you to everybody who has done all of those things, this isn’t possible without all the support.
“Just to finalise numbers, with the raffle being drawn, I can confirm that we sold more than $16,000 worth of tickets.
“Along with the ticket sales and personal donations, between the five of us, we’ve raised over $33,000.
“In 2024, the target was $200,000 and we raised $267,000. This year, again, the target was set at $200,000, we are now over $360,000.
“In five years of this trek, it is approaching $1.2 million raised towards the Mark Hughes Foundation.”
The story is about two families coming together from Junee, who have lost a loved one to brain cancer, partnering up with the Mark Hughes Foundation and the Big Three Trek.
“They are memories that are with us forever and the five of us just got so much joy out of doing the walk and we are already planning for next year.”
-Jack Murray
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