The streets of Launceston were filled with runners decked out in pink on Sunday, as thousands participated in a run to raise much-needed funds and awareness for the Cancer Council.
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Jeanette Gilbert travelled to Launceston from St Marys to participate in the Women’s 5K event on Sunday.
“I had lung cancer,” she said. “I lost half a lobe in November last year, and then I had some other health complications after that.
“It’s taken me to now until I felt well enough to do the walk.
“I didn’t expect to do five kilometres. I thought I’d be lucky to get half way.”
Mrs Gilbert ended up walking the distance.
“I got halfway and I thought, gee, if I’ve done this, I can keep going,” she said.
“When you’re walking with other people, it’s easy to just keep going.”
Mrs Gilbert said she wanted to participate in the run to show her support for the Cancer Council.
“The social workers at the Cancer Council were wonderful,” she said.
“Anytime you went in, they were happy to chat with you, they were always there for support which was lovely.
“I think for myself, I wanted to prove I could do it, but it was also for financial support for the Cancer Council.”
Many participants formed teams to help tackle the event.
One of those was a group of staff members from Scotch Oakburn campuses.
Teacher Catriona Hurd, teacher aide Shani French, and administration officer Lydia Beecroft were three of 28 participants in their team.
Ms Hurd said it was the second year the team had participated together in the event.
“We’re all from Scotch Oakburn, and we’re all staff ranging across from early learning to year 12, including the admin staff,” she said.
“I suppose we’ve all got someone who has been affected by cancer in our lives.
“It’s just a great community event.”
Ms French said it was good to run with the support of fellow staff members.
Ms Beecroft said since the school was spread across two campuses, they got quite separated at times.
“It’s really nice to be doing things like this where the senior school, or administration, or junior school are involved, where it’s just all of us together.”