I’m making a splash for a cause that matters!

Cancer has touched my family and the lives of so many people I love.

My Dad beat cancer. So have many dear friends and family members. We’ve seen what it means when research, early diagnosis and better treatments give someone more time, more options and, sometimes, their life back.

But we’ve also loved people who didn’t get that chance.

In April this year, I lost my dearest friend Jane to cancer, just seven months after her diagnosis. Through it all, she never gave up hope. She approached every day with absolute optimism and an extraordinary determination to keep going. And none of us gave up hope either. Mike, Jenny, Lily, her medical team and our incredible Team Smiley community did everything to support her, to fight alongside her. We kept believing together - because when someone you love is fighting for their life, hope matters.

Medical research has come an extraordinary way. More people are surviving diseases that, not so long ago, had very different outcomes. But when someone you love is diagnosed, and the answers or treatments they need still aren't there, you realise just how much further we have to go.

We cannot stop. We have to keep supporting research.

For years, our family has supported the Perkins through the MACA Cancer 200 Ride for Research. Through that involvement, we’ve had the privilege of seeing first-hand where the money goes, meeting the people behind the research and understanding the difference that community fundraising can make.

This year, our family won't be riding.

So we’ve decided to make a splash instead - or at least a ripple.

I’ll be joining Team Smiley for the Perkins Plunge, swimming through the night to raise funds for the extraordinary researchers at the Perkins who are working every day to better understand, treat and ultimately defeat the diseases that change—and take—far too many lives.

I’m swimming for my beautiful friend Jane. For my family and friends who have beaten cancer, and for those we desperately wish were still here.

And I’m swimming because the next breakthrough has to come from somewhere.

Every donation, however big or small, helps give researchers the tools, technology and time they need to find better answers, better treatments and, ultimately, better outcomes.

Please support Team Smiley and help us make a splash for medical research. Because somewhere, another family is hoping that the breakthrough they need is just around the corner.