I am honored to have been the official patron of The Male Bag Ride/Foundation since April 2013, when 25 men decided to ride ex-postie Honda 110 motorcycles from Perth to Melbourne. Moving forward we have since organised a further five rides, round Tasmania in 2014, Victoria in 2015, Gippsland in 2016, Echuca/Moama region in 2017 and Victoria/Canberra/NSW in 2018.
Following the initial Perth to Melbourne ride work began to establish the foundation as a registered not-for-profit charity. We can now proudly say every cent of fund raising is directed to prostate care outcomes in regional areas – outcomes that would otherwise not be met.
Supported by so many people (riders, crew, sponsors, families and general public) we have now collected in excess of $1 million. This is used to raise awareness, purchase public hospital testing equipment, and provide patient nursing support, to fight prostate cancer in Australia.
It is important that we continue to spread the word about prostate cancer, in the hope that we can save more men from this insidious disease that kills over 3000 Australian men every year. Our website www.themalebagfoundation.org.au will provide you with more details of how you can help us with this work.
David Parkin – Patron, Rider and Prostate Cancer Survivor.