MERCURY SERIES - Making A Difference
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When Marty Ward, of Keiraville, lost his wife Michelle to pancreatic cancer last May he decided his two-year fight was not over.
Mr Ward needed to do something to help find a cure so others would not have to go through what his wife had.
But he never expected the amount of community support he and their children Courtney, 22, Eilish, 19, and Keelan, 18, received for a bowls day they organised last November.
Mr Ward was a member of Wiseman Park Bowling Club, which provided the venue for the event in Michelle's honour.
Word-of-mouth spread quickly and many Wollongong, Keiraville and Gwynneville shops put up posters but what followed was a community response beyond anyone's expectations.
The bowls day and donations made at the funeral raised more than $24,500 for pancreatic cancer research.
A grateful Mr Ward and his mother-in-law, Noelene Birt, travelled to the Garvan Institute of Medical Research this week to hand over the money to Professor Andrew Biankin's team of researchers working on a project using genetics to improve the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
As a Cancer Council NSW 2011 STREP (Strategic Research Partnerships) Grant recipient, Professor Biankin's team is receiving $1.5 million over the next five years.
But when Mr Ward had read about the project in a Sydney newspaper he wanted to help the Cancer Council do more and knew that was exactly where he wanted the money to go.
He was supported by the rest of the family and many friends who helped organise and run the bowls day.
"I told Mia Parsons [Cancer Council NSW Southern Region community relations co-ordinator] this is what we wanted to do and she was very helpful and guided us along the way," he said.
Mrs Parsons said pancreatic cancer was a devastating disease.
Only 5 per cent of patients diagnosed live for five years or more and almost 90 per cent succumb within 12 months.
Mr Ward said his wife, a nurse at Figtree Private Hospital, lasted two years.
"We were very lucky to have her that long but unfortunately in the end all the operations and all the treatment was not enough," he said.
Professor Biankin's team is hoping to find genes that they can target with existing anti-cancer drugs. They believe that could lead to a number of new targeted treatments for pancreatic cancer at a fraction of the time and cost that it would take to develop a drug from scratch.
Mrs Parsons said the Cancer Council was amazed by how much the Ward family raised.
Mr Ward said that it would not have been possible without the community support and wanted to thank everyone involved.
"I am especially proud of what we achieved in Michelle's memory and I know Michelle's profile in the Illawarra community ... was a great help towards the amount of support we received and the success of the bowls day," he said.
"My wife was very heavily involved in Illawarra junior basketball and many of the people there on the day were involved in junior basketball.
"I was simply blown away at just how many people came to support us. It really shows how much the Illawarra wants to see a cancer-free future. I just can't thank the community enough."
That included many people from North Wollongong and Wollongong City surf clubs, other junior sports and Figtree Private Hospital.
"Once it got out there that we were doing this in memory of Michelle everyone just said 'yeah we are coming'," Mr Ward said.
Courtney was attending university in Bathurst at the time and about 30 of his uni mates came, as did many of Eilish's friends from TAFE in Canberra and her and Keelan's friends from Holy Spirit College. Many shared memories of Michelle and all wanted to do something to help find a cure.
Mr Ward said all the shops in Keiraville were amazingly generous as were many small businesses in Wollongong such as The Body Shop. This year they plan to do it again and light a candle in Michelle's memory.