By Jessica Micallef
Paula Glare is keeping memories of her dear friend alive.
The Sunbury resident has chosen to remember her late friend Russell Wood, who died in June last year after battling lung cancer, by raising money to help others.
One of her main fundraisers is the Russ Wood Walk.
“I wanted to help him out by doing fundraisers for him but he wouldn’t have it,” Ms Glare said.
“He said that there were people worse off than him and [that] they needed more help than he did.”
Mr Wood decided he wanted money raised for Camp Quality – an organisation that provides programs and services to develop life skills, and to strengthen the wellbeing of children growing up with cancer.
“Russell believed that the kids are our future,” Ms Glare said.
“We should do everything we can to help them.”
In 2016, Ms Glare organised a sausage sizzle and started Steptober – a fundraising initiative to see how many steps people can take in October. She ran it again the following year.
However, she wanted to take the fundraising one step further.
“I asked Russell if he would mind if I did a walk in his name to raise money and awareness of Camp Quality, so in 2018, the Russ Wood Walk happened in March, raising over $12,000,” she said.
Ms Glare walked from Ascot, a northern suburb of Bendigo, to Sunbury in 2018 in less than 22 hours.
This year, to honour Mr Wood’s memory, she recently walked from Sunbury, along Port Phillip Bay and back to Sunbury.
Despite not being able to complete the 255 kilometre walk because of injury, Ms Glare was able to raise $2300 for Camp Quality.
She said she was looking forward to completing the remaining 100 kilometres left of the walk at a later date.
To donate: bit.ly/2TVKLrM
