Rowers to take on challenge for Laurie

ALMOST a year after the town turned to a sea of black and red to honour a man who proved “infinite love is the cure”, the Burdekin is set to once again adorn the colours before jumping on rowers to raise vital funds and awareness for brain cancer.

Today marks one year since Laurence Pavone lost his 10-month battle with an aggressive brain cancer, and almost 12 months since Laurie’s Love charity ticked over the $200,000 fundraising mark.

Days after Laurence died, five teams of 13 rowers turned out for a 24-hour rowathon, which raised $44,000.

This year’s event is on tomorrow, with more than 120 rowers taking on the charity challenge Row for a Cure.

Organiser Tammy Quagliata said both rowers and the community were getting excited for the 24-hour event.

“We’ve got 108 rowers locally and 120 rowers (in total), so we have a Townsville team and a Thursday Island team,” she said.

“I think it just had such an impact on the community last year, obviously unfortunately coinciding with Laurence’s passing that week before, but it brought the community together.

“I think this year it coincides with the anniversary of his death so I think everybody wants to come out and support it.”

Ms Quagliata said the continuous 24-hour team rowathon was not just about raising funds but awareness, with the community event running alongside the marathon row.

“It’s 24 hours, midday to midday, someone needs to be on the rower at all times so it is up to the teams how they do that, whether they do rosters or that sort of thing and then the community event looks a little different,” she said.

Ms Quagliata said the event and funds raised so far were already far beyond organisers’ expectations.

“We didn’t know if it would be bigger and better, it was obviously always our hope,” she said.

“This is the only event that Laurie’s Love has been able to fundraise at this year so obviously Julie and all the directors have been working hard behind the scenes to put the money into research so it is going places already.

“Our aim was just to beat $40,000 and we didn’t know how that would go, but we have beat that target already which is exciting.”