5 Days – 700 kms on a bicycle in the name of cancer research

60 Riders, 20 Road Crew makes the event happen on the road, raising more than half a million dollars for cancer research with focus on melanoma and ovarian cancer.

With a course designed by Annette ‘Nettie’ Edmondson, Australia world champion cyclist and now assistant race director with the Tour Down Under, the Australia World Tour cycling event, this was never going to be an easy experience. 700 kms over 5-days with more than 8,000 metres of climbing, which in simple terms is the equivalent of climbing 2,670 sets of stairs across a working week!

My personal journey with the ‘Smiddy Challenge’ started way back in 2008, with the original event where we cycled 1680 kms from Brisbane to Townsville in honour of Adam Smiddy, a young physiotherapist who died from melanoma cancer at 26. we raised $120,000 that year with 50 cyclists and a further $14 million in the years since, all being directed to medical research at the Mater Research Foundation in Brisbane, Australia.

We’ve contributed to the funding of some amazing projects over those years and its true that the funding from those early years and the subsequent research means there are treatments that have saved many lives, and very likely meant that Adam may still be alive today.

Through that time, we’ve made some amazing friendships. Take ‘Captain Kevvy’. Kevin Enkelmeir has driven the rear pilot vehicle in almost every Smiddy event since 2007; that’d be well over 100 events, keeping more than 2,000 people safe on the road. He’s back again this year, well into his 70’s and still as feisty as ever.

So, why do we do it? And what is the current pathways the research is following?

The best person to describe that is Prof. Brian Gabrielli from the Mater Research Foundation, one of the lead researchers in the melanoma and ovarian cancer space; I’ve been riding with Brian this week on the Challenge, as he’s also a veteran cyclist.

“Geevesy, good to be riding with you again. The research we are doing is about killing cancers selectively so that the toxic side effects of conventional chemo are avoided. This not just good news for patients but also means their immune system is not being smashed.

Recruiting the patient’s immune system to combat their tumour is where the real benefit will be seen. The new treatment we are working on does this by selectively killing the tumour. We are currently focused on melanoma and ovarian cancer, where the treatment recruits the patient’s immune system.

The current research is into making the immune response better and longer lasting. We have some ideas of how we can achieve this and are testing these now”.

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