Tour de Crawf hits WA!

[Deleted User]

Shane Crawford’s epic Tour de Crawf adventure continues to inspire and amaze the communities he cycles through.

Now onto day 14 - with 2,353km down, and only 1,247km to go, Shane has now passed the Western Australia border and is bound for Perth!

Incredibly, Crawf is ahead of schedule – on track to arrive into Perth for a live AFL Footy Show at Crown Perth on Thursday 11 July.

More information

• For more information about Shane's incredible challenge and to see how you can get involved -- visit the Tour de Crawf page on our website.
• Catch-up on the latest from Tour de Crawf through Crawf's Daily Diary’s on The AFL Footy Show’s website.

-Samantha-

Yep....surprising huh? Since last weeks amazing honor to be a part of Tour De Crawf for a night, I have been asked by everyone "So, what was it like?"

...and that's what I am...speechless.

I have no idea if its the fact that I'm still trying to put it in to words or whether its because it was such an emotional time that I'm still recovering.....

A little of both I think.

We landed in the metropolis of Ceduna Thursday evening, Max, Raelene, Celeste, Leann, Christie & myself. We were met by Sue and Kate madly waving their Tour DeCrawf banners through the bars of the airport "shed", then whisked off to our motel to our unoffical "meet'n'greet" dinner. What a great bunch!

I wont waffle on about the rest of our stay but get straight to "THE EVENT":

We were taken to a gorgeous spot on Shelly Beach's sand dunes where Sue & KAte had done an amazing job of arranging the intimate marquee & dinner while watching the sun set.

Shane (Crawf) wandered in and after my initial "OH MY GOD HE'S HOT" thoughts, composed myself (cue the Wine) & started our lovely eveing of listening and sharing.

What an experience. We cried, laughed, shared, hugged and cried some more.

There arent enough adjectives to describe Shane or what he's doing in support of us women and BCNA, but beleive me when I say, the 7 of us made sure he knew how we felt.

I have come away with a real sense of belonging and pride. Not only in what we did last week, but in what I've come through personally over the past 5 years.

I could never thank Shane enough for what he's doing or BCNA enough for allowing me to be a part of such an amazing experience.

But Thankyou. Sam x

ShirlO

Well, what can I say about Crawf that Sazm hasn't already said !!! He is a truly amazing man.

When I was asked to organise an event in Mildura for Shane's stop-over I was stumped .... for all of 10 minutes, then the brain kicked into gear!!!

I found a beautiful venue at the Rowing Club Lawns on the banks of the Murray River, got the kids amusements and the coffee, ice cream and b.b.q vendors organised. The Mildura Shire Council were so helpful with paperwork etc ... all the red tape of event organisation was cut through then "helpers materialised"

Through networking I assembled a PINK ARMY .... Rhonds'a Amusements set up jumping castles and a merry-go-round, Sunraysia Cancer Resources, Young Women's Support Group, Dragonboat Club members, my Wentworth Tai Chi and RSL Women's Auxiliary, family and friends ... all determined to help make this an exciting event.

We had a Pink Ladies' Beauty Parlour - hair colouring, manicures, face painting, tattoos etc ..... raffle ticket sales, donation table, merchandise sales, Field of Women with memorial tags, helium filled balloons and of course the BIG PINK TRUCK !!!

The weather wasn't the best, a few showers and a little bit of wind, but the sun came out just as Shane rode across the bridge from NSW into Victoria. My wonderful partner Terry (who pinked up his beard and hair for the occasion) walked around and made sure everyone had their pink ponchos.

The crowd gathered from 2pm, and by the time Shane arrived around 4 there were PINK people every where. When he came up onto the stage it was hard to imagine he had just cycled 225k, his speech was so bright and cheery (and cheeky !!!)

He met and spoke to so many people, my committee, survivors, admirers (and there were over 1,000 of them), signed shirts, footballs and anything people passed to him.

It was such a wonderful and successful day, not only for the money that was raised on the day but also for creating awareness for BCNA and the work we do.

I have been "stalking" him through the AFL Footy Show and the "Tour de Crawf Ride to the Other Side" pages, watching his progress through this very large country of ours and my admiration for this "Aussie Bloke" grows every day.

Crawf, you are a true inspiration to all of us .... see you on the "other side"

 

Luv ShirlO