What began as one person’s personal response to loss has grown into a vibrant community event.
Ash Trotter, co-owner of Frankston’s Hotel Paradiso, hosted her second breast cancer fundraiser in June, raising a phenomenal $20,000 for breast cancer research in Prof Delphine Mérino’s laboratory at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute (ONJCRI). This doubled the funds raised at last year’s event, a true demonstration of the community’s commitment to this cause.
Running from midday well into the night, this year’s event included live music and kids’ entertainment, with a portion of the proceeds from food and drink going directly to cancer research. By evening, the dancefloor was full.
The highlight was a raffle that drew more than 1,700 entries, with a prize pool valued at over $17,000, including a Queensland getaway among the prizes.
The afternoon also held space for the stories that fuelled this advocacy. Ash shared openly about losing her mother Linda to metastatic breast cancer, and about what drives her to advocate for breast cancer research.
Other speakers stood alongside her. Ash’s cousin Jodie Leworthy spoke about her own experience of breast cancer. Chantelle Elliott, a mother of three from Tyabb, shared how she navigated a stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis just months after being told she had thyroid cancer. Fiona Denny, who co-hosted her own breast cancer fundraiser for ONJCRI last year, also shared her breast cancer journey.
Professor Delphine Mérino, whose Tumour Progression and Heterogeneity Laboratory is the direct beneficiary of funds raised, spoke about what this kind of community support makes possible. Her team works to understand why, in some patients, cancer spreads to other organs, what the genetic differences are that make some tumour cells more aggressive than others, and is exploring better ways to treat these cancers.
Breast cancer remains the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australian women. For patients whose cancer spreads beyond the breast, treatment options remain limited and outcomes can be poor.
Prof Mérino’s research is working to change that, seeking new therapeutic targets and deeper insight into how these tumours evolve.
Community-powered fundraising like Ash’s is what makes that work possible.
ONJCRI is grateful for Ash’s commitment to this cause, and the warmth with which Hotel Paradiso’s team and the wider Frankston community have embraced it.
