But he wasn't always sure how he could.

"I remember going to Ballarat to visit him in hospital," Mr Morrow recalled.

"Even though Warracknabeal, where my family is from, is such a small town, there were six people on the same floor as him at the same time.

"It's scary really; we'd go in, visit him and then we'd go from room to room, to see this person and that person, all the other people there that we knew."

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Looking for a way to give back, Mr Morrow was inspired by his father's oncologist, Professor George Kannaourakis.

He became a supporter of the Fiona Elsey Institute in Ballarat, where Professor Kannaourakis was involved.

"Over the same time my father was being treated, we had a lot of friends who were also getting treated by George; he's just such a caring person," Mr Morrow said.

"Cancer touches everybody."

"Everyone, if they haven't had cancer themselves, know of someone that has; it's something that touches the hearts of a lot of people."

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In the past seven years, the Morrow family has been instrumental in raising over $60,000 for the institute, which is the only cancer research institute located outside a capital city, Mr Morrow said.

A highlight of previous fundraising efforts was the 'Cross-dress for Cancer' road trip along the Murray river - a journey of more than 15,000 kilometres.

"We all dressed up - there were 10 of us - and we rode on postie bikes the length of the Murray, up in the mountains right down to South Australia.

"We raised over $6,000 on that trip, and we've just been doing different stuff after that."

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Now the Horsham businessman is set to join the board as director of fundraising.

"I'm really proud to be involved, although I think I'm the only one on the board without any letters after my name," Mr Morrow joked.

He said the passion on display and the tangible results of the work being done at the institute are big reasons he wanted to be a more significant part of it.

"The people (at the institute) are very passionate about about the role of they provide," Mr Morrow said.

"I think what helps provide the enthusiasm is the work that the scientists are doing there that they're really making some headway."

The Fiona Elsey Institute has research projects underway into six types of cancer: ovarian, breast, bowel, renal, Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), and a project focused on immunology.

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"They've got a tissue bank and George has been collecting these tissues from real cancer samples for the last 20 years; he's got over 30,000 of them," Mr Morrow said.

"You've got scientists working on each of those different cancers, trying to achieve improvements in treatment.

"At the moment, chemo knocks people around fairly badly."

Mr Morrow also said that he was offered a role on the board because the Wimmera needed more of a voice.

"George understands that we need to have people from the Wimmera on the board, because a lot of his clients come from this area."

Mr Morrow hopes by joining the board, he can give back to the community and play a role in the fight against cancer.

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