$3.3 million donated to breast and ovarian cancer research (thanks to you)

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There was a sense of anticipation at the announcement of the total amount donated by the Mother’s Day Classic when the board, staff and volunteers gathered at The Langham in Melbourne on Tuesday night.

It was a night of congratulations and celebration as the $3.3 million 2024 donation to fund life-saving breast and ovarian cancer research was almost a record amount donated and $3/4 million up on the 2023 donation.

Of this total amount, $2.1 million will be donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) and $1.2 million to the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation (OCRF) in accordance with the selection of MDC participants. This year was the first year of a new partnership between the MDC and the OCRF,

Unfortunately both breast cancer and ovarian cancer have taken the ultimate toll on women dear to me, with my sister Mary passing away from breast cancer in 2012, aged 44, and ovarian cancer taking the life of my valued colleague and friend, Kristen Florance in 2018, at age 53.

Neither the NBCF nor the OCRF receives a cent of government funding so these donations have a massive impact on the investment in research that both foundations can afford to fund. The $1.2 million donation was the largest donation the OCRF had ever received.

Current projects funded by the NBF include: Dr Amy McCart Reed (University of Queensland) – new biomarkers to predict treatment response in patients with high-risk aggressive breast cancer; Professor Kum Kum Khanna (QIMR Beghoffer Medical Research Institute) – repurposing an arthritis drug for the treatment of metastatic triple negative breast cancer and Dr Camille Short (University of Melbourne) – improving heart health in breast cancer survivors using tele-rehabilitation, amongst others.

The support I have received this year from my subscribers, clients, friends and family has been massive with my contribution to the fundraising reaching a new record of $22,932 thanks to 62 donors. A special thanks to the donors who chipped in a four figure amount: Mark Smith (people2people), Robert and Di Brown (TCT), Smart Recruitment, Sharon Henderson (Legal People), APositive, Mark Medelis (Concentis) and Daniel Mundy (ANZUK Education).

My individual fundraising tally was fifth highest on the national fundraising leaderboard and pushes my total MDC fundraising across 13 campaigns to $138,765. I am one of three people who have exceeded $100,000 in total individual fundraising across the 26 years of the Mother’s Day Classic.

The MDC announcement coincides with another initiative I have been involved with that has a direct impact on my 2025 MDC fundraising.

Smaart Recruitment director James Witcombe is responsible for a new product that was launched in Melbourne two weeks ago – Licence to Interview (LTI.

LTI is a compact video-based short course of ten videos (15 – 20 mins each) and accompanying workbooks and quizzes designed to equip hiring managers with better skills to conduct effective interviews and make better hiring decisions.

As one of the nine contributing guests my participation was made possible by Smaart Recruitment’s generous donation to my 2024 MDC campaign.

Additional MDC donations have been agreed aligned to the achievement of agreed LTI sales results so I would encourage you to check out LTI here and to support my 2025 MDC campaign by either buying LTI or recommending LTI to your clients. Early adopter subscription pricing is available for a limited time.

You can view an 80 second LTI introductory video here

Thanks, as always, for your ongoing support of my MDC campaigns.