Great Illawarra Walk
The Great Illawarra Walk, held on the 23rd and 24th of March, has once again put a spot light on the Illawarra region’s great sense of community, with the two day event raising close to $100,000 for children with cancer.
Now in its sixth year, nearly 1000 walkers decided to take on the challenge in 2013, setting off at 7am on Saturday morning from the southern beach village of Shellharbour and heading north
towards Coalcliff, an almost 50km trek.
On Sunday they did it all again, this time in the opposite direction, rounding out a gruelling 100km event that will see all the proceeds donated to Camp Quality.
Rebecca Allman, local resident and first time participant in the event, encouraged everyone to get involved.
“My mum has had breast cancer twice so I was really keen to give it a go and try and raise as much money as I can.
“I wont’ be doing the entire 100km, I’m just walking from Shellharbour to Wollongong, but you can walk for however long you want, that’s the beauty of it.
“I just think it’s such a simple way for people to get involved in a good cause and raise awareness and money for families struggling with cancer.”
Event organiser and founder, Chris Lovatt, said not only did the walk raise money for a good cause, but it also encouraged a healthy lifestyle in general.
“I walk a lot anyway, I love walking, and some friends and I had been tossing up the idea of a charity walk for some time.
“We were sitting at Bobby’s Dinner [in Shellharbour], and we just decided we were going to go with it,” he said.
“It’s just a great way for people to get outside, be healthy and be apart of such a fantastic event.”
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