58 year old Grant was diagnosed with stage 4 Biliary cancer in 2020. Grant is a passionate advocate and supporter of Pancare and the importance of talking and connecting with others during a cancer diagnosis and treatment.
3 years on from his initial diagnosis, Grant is an active member of the Pancare community, support groups and an all round champion of hope.
Drawing from his personal experience and battle with an upper GI cancer, Grant founded the BUGIC Foundation – to selflessly use his cancer experience to help as many people as he can, to support them through their diagnosis.
Below is a recap from Grant following his successful BUGIC Foundation Fundraiser in WA.
The BUGIC Grant Prix
On Sunday 28th April the inaugural BUGIC Grant Prix was held at Beerfarm brewery in Metricup, Western Australia just north of the beautiful world renowned wine region of Margaret River.
The Grant Prix, instead of Grand, is a play on words named after myself who is a Biliary cancer patient and CEO of our foundation. The focus of BUGIC (Battle Upper GI cancer) is to impact across the battle, awareness and research or what I call the B.A.R. All very important outcomes to tackle and cure these horrible cancers. I say “time is not my friend” and we must try to make the battle experience somewhat better for patients and their families right now. We will always contribute to awareness and research, as we know that takes time, which we as patients don’t have.
To make it simple the event was a crazy, funny and in the end serious, for some, competition between 50 adults going down a giant “slip n slide” or 2 lane waterslide to raise money and awareness for Upper GI cancers. Did the competitiveness of some come out to play !!!!
The idea was bought to life by Andy (our son) and Ben (our adopted son), 2 Beerfarm employees who are very smart and creative young men. They sure know how to organise and run an event to not only attract the right crowd but to deliver on the requirements and exceed all expectations. We are extremely proud and thankful to both of them and am sure Beerfarm are of their valued employees.
The day was just amazing and a huge success for not just BUGIC but also for the Beerfarm and its brand supporting a charity raising over $4500. Between numerous knockout slide races, colouring competition and word search for the kids, sausage sizzle, stubby holders, Billy’s Battle kids cancer book, live music and more the day could not have gone any better. It’s not always about the money, but it sure does help.
The awareness and conversations we shared on the day between so many adults and kids who hardly knew each other was just overwhelming, There were so many stories and journeys to share with all different experiences across many cancers and illness. It touches so many emotions and we laughed, cried, hugged and shared a common outcome bringing us together as one.
For myself to have the opportunity to share this day with my beautiful wife, all our children and family plus have the support of many others back home, was just amazing, overwhelming, humbling and a memory together that will last forever.
To be able to have such positive impact on so many lives helps drive my fight and keeps me strong as well.
The event would not have been such a success without the contributions from so many including Debra, Andrew, Haylee, Luke, Aaron, Natasha, Ben, Bessie, Keeley, Mark, Kim and Em, Jake and the entire Beerfarm crew on the day.
I would especially like to thank all the parents and children who attended the event and made such an amazing effort to participate, contribute and just have some good old Aussie fun.
There was one beautiful moment I have to share. A gorgeous little girl Penelope won the colouring competition 1st prize of $50. Later on in the day she came back up to me and said she wanted to donate the money back for her “Poppy in the sky”. He had unfortunately died from pancreatic cancer recently. This brought me and many others to tears. It was such an amazing moment we will all remember forever. Words cannot explain how we feel, the positive impact she has had on us all and what a lovely gesture it was from such a young girl.
The future will be bright with more Penelope’s in this world.
We look forward to more fun with a bigger and better race no.2 in 2025.
Grant
CEO and Founder
BUGIC Foundation
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