Pink Triathlon Project

By Miltiades Spyrou, Year 11

Over the course of Terms 1 and 2, Isobel Higgins in Year 11 trained for and then participated in the Pink Triathlon to raise money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. During this process Thomas Liu and I supported Isobel by promoting the National Breast Cancer Foundation through short videos we created to post on various social media sites and YouTube.

This undertaking was our CAS project. CAS is a core part of our IB course that encourages us to partake in actions of Creativity, Activity, and Service (hence CAS). This collaborative project has been ongoing since the end of February and the three of us contributed in various ways: Isobel ran the triathlon and worked on spreading awareness via social media, Thomas coordinated and created the social media content, and I researched the National Breast Cancer Foundation, learning about how it uses its donations, and I helped raise further awareness about the project.

The National Breast Cancer Foundation is Australia's leading non-profit organisation in funding breast cancer research. It raises funds for research to prevent breast cancer through precision prevention, detect breast cancer as early as possible before it progresses, treat hard-to-treat and metastatic breast cancer, and stop the progression and recurrence of breast cancer. This is all for the purpose of their vision of zero deaths from breast cancer. The Ramsay Health Care Triathlon Pink (also known as the Pink Triathlon) raises money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. It began in 2007 and since then has raised over $2.5 million to support breast cancer research.

With the help of our generous donors, we raised $1074, surpassing our fundraising goal of $500.

When asked why Isobel chose to run the Pink Triathlon she said:

"Completing these triathlons for my grandmother who had suffered from breast cancer was challenging, but I know that the pain I endured will never be as hard as that that my grandmother had to live through every day. Because in the end, during the hour or two of swimming, biking and running, you will always have the opportunity to opt out of the race, but those with breast cancer can't. The only way I know it can be described is that breast cancer is sort of like an ultramarathon, 100km of land to cover and there's no way to pull out of it along the way. But this campaign we created was to give those running the race the support they need to make it to the end and come out with a smile. This purpose is what helped me get to the end of my races and hopefully what will help them to get to theirs too."

You can make a donation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation by clicking here.