About 300 people, many from the financial services industry,
attended the annual Awards evening for aid agency Oxfam’s Melbourne
Trailwalker, which raised more than $2.3 million for the charity’s March walk.
The Sydney
event will take place from August 28-30. The major sponsor, State Street, gave the popular
‘Overcoming the Odds’ Award to Kathleen Long who completed the 100km of rough
terrain within 48 hours at age 60.
The odds Kathleen overcame were breast cancer
around her 40th birthday, an hysterectomy on her 50th and then a detached
retina in her eye when she signed up for Trailwalker on her 60th. Chris Field, State Street’s head
of sales and marketing, presented the award. Perhaps reflecting the straitened times
for business, the highest fundraiser award went to a team of mums from Melbourne, known as
‘US4’, rather than the usual corporate types who tend to take out this section.
Lest someone think this column is sounding a little chauvinistic, “team of mums”
is how Tamsin Loy, the Melbourne Trailwalker co-ordinator, described the winning
team of four women who raised $28,865. The fastest team was the Melbourne
Midday Milers, who regularly run in their lunchtimes, who broke the Trailwalker
record with a time of 10 hours and 35 minutes.
