AS MELANOMA is on Melbourne’s mind with the recent diagnosis of Hawthorn footballer Jarryd Roughead, it seemed fitting that melanoma would spark conversation at a Biggest Morning Tea event in Cranbourne.
The event held at the Cranbourne Football Club raised more than $5000 for the Cancer Council and even managed to help Cranbourne’s homeless at the same time.
Biggest Morning Tea organiser Roxanne Taranto, who took over the event when her own mum, Dianne Schreuder, died from kidney cancer, said the afternoon teas were always a success.
“It’s our 11th year, we had 80 people attend and over those years we have donated $60,311,” Ms Taranto said.
“Now one in two people are touched by cancer. When we started it was one in five.
“Cancer recovery is much better now than when we started running the morning teas which means the money is helping.”
The Cancer Council is aiming for 36,000 host registrations and so far has 27,023 hosts.
Ms Taranto said a speech by Ron Neyenhuis about his melanoma battle struck a chord.
“He is going through it now for the second time,” she said.
“He spoke about how he works indoors and always wears shirts but got a melanoma on his back – you just never know.”
An auction and fruit and veggie stall helped raise funds at the tea on Thursday 26 May and leftovers were sent to the Cranbourne food truck.
