The Horsham and District community have once again shown the generosity and empathy that has long been associated with this community. 

While the number of teams involved this year was slightly down on recent years, the actual number of participants was up on 2016. It was wonderful to have Relay For Life back in Horsham at Coughlin Park after the rebuild of the Coughlin Park Community Centre.  

What a sensational sight it was to see so many members of our community coming together to form a sea of purple with a shared goal of raising funds for Cancer Council Victoria in its ongoing fight against cancer.   

This year’s relay was the 15th in Horsham and helped bring the total amount raised from our local community to in excess of $1.5 million. 

A significant number of teams each raised in excess of $5000 and have qualified for Cancer Council Victoria Research Awards, allowing these teams to each fund a world-class cancer research project. Research awards will be presented to the relevant teams at our inaugural Hall of Fame function in July this year. A researcher whose work has benefitted from these funds will be guest speaker at the function.

I cannot fully express my gratitude for the generous support that has been given to Relay For Life in Horsham. On behalf of my committee I wish to thank local businesses, schools and the community generally for their support through events such as Paint The Town Purple, teams’ fundraising ventures and by simply ‘being there’ and showing support to help fight cancer.

Teams ran a wide range of events across the past 12 months to help in their fundraising ventures and combined to help raise in excess of $100,000. As chair manager of the Horsham and District Relay For Life committee, I am continually astounded and grateful for the support and generosity given by our community.

Relay For Life was held just one week after Wimmera Against Cancer in Kids (WACK) raised about $10,000 from their car show at May Park. The community has also strongly supported Rachel’s Wish and the establishment of the Wimmera Cancer Centre as well.

Unfortunately, each year 118 people in our community hear the words, "You have cancer". The money raised through Relay For Life helps Cancer Council Victoria’s research, prevention programs and support services for those affected by cancer in Horsham and across Victoria.  

To all the entertainers, speakers, presenters, sponsors and service providers – again I offer my sincere thanks.

I also wish to publicly acknowledge the commitment, determination and passion of my committee members who helped make the weekend so successful.

To each team, every participant and every supporter of Relay For Life 2017 – I simply say thank you.

Kingsley Dalgleish, chair manager, Horsham and District Relay For Life committee

I AM researching the family history of my great great grandfather Andrew Wilson who was born in Scotland in 1820.

Andrew married Agnes Montgomery in 1846 and had two sons (John and Andrew) before migrating to South Australia where they had three more sons (Thomas, Hugh and James). 

In about 1875 the family moved to the Horsham district where Andrew and each of his sons took up leases of land. 

If there are any descendents of Andrew and Agnes reading this I would appreciate contact with any stories or photos. My email address is trevorjameswilson@bigpond.com

Trevor Wilson, Dyraaba NSW