TWO local organisations have banded together in the fight again breast cancer.
A Fit Life by Tonya has challenged the Proserpine Brahmans to complete a whopping 57 squats per day, in a bid to raise funds for breast cancer research.
Tonya and her A Fit Life team have signed up to do the National Breast Cancer Foundation 57 Squats Challenge, throughout March.
The team has pledged to raise money for breast cancer research and increase awareness. Currently, 57 Australians are diagnosed with breast cancer every day.
Team member Kerry Dibbin said the idea originally started out as a way to get her son’s under 12 team involved and it grew from there.
“What started as me thinking of getting my son and I to do our daily squats in front of his team, jumped to me thinking that the coach might let the whole team to do the 57 squats,” she said.
“Then I wondered if, somehow, we could get all teams involved. With teams from Under 17 to Under 6, all training on a Thursday [I thought] getting the entire club doing 57 squats would be awesome.
“When we spoke with the club, they were so quick to jump on board and very supportive. It was just terrific.”
Proserpine Brahmans Club president Justin Folley said they were more than willing to participate and ‘shake the can’ to support the fundraising.
“The club has been touched by breast cancer on more than one occasion and there is currently a young club player whose Mum is recovering from recent breast cancer surgery, so we were keen to do whatever we could to support the 57 Squat Challenge,” Mr Folley said.
“The Brahmans have some terrific girls playing in the younger grades, as well as two girls’ teams, so the synergy is even stronger.”
Tonya Dunne, from A Fit Life by Tonya, said her motivation for creating a team in the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) 57 Squat Challenge had been her own recent experience, with both family and friends suffering from breast cancer.
“Given my line of work as a personal trainer, the idea of the NBCF 57 Squat Challenge resonated and, I thought, now this is something I can do to support my family and friends fighting this terrible disease,” Ms Dunne said.
“With 57 people diagnosed daily, and a further nine people losing their life each day because of breast cancer, we really want to raise these vital funds for breast cancer research…I want to make a difference to the lives of those 57 Australians impacted by the disease.
“Every donation, big or small, gets us closer to reaching our goal and helping NBCF end deaths from breast cancer. I’d set our team a goal of $750 and, within three days, we had reached that and we’re now nearing well over $4,000. “The enthusiasm of the Brahmans was wonderful and leading the kids in the 57 Squats, at their training sessions, was fantastic.” Donate at www.fundraise.nbcf.org.au/fundraisers/afitlifebytonya
