Having taken up competing in fun runs Bill Tsigaras stumbled on the Mother’s Day Classic. At that point, he was looking for nothing more than another test of fitness. Little did he know that over the next five-plus years the Mother’s Day Classic would become an integral part of his Mother’s Day.
“I was on a health kick at the time, and the day moved me so much I decided I’d come back and that I would start fundraising,” Tsigaras said. “The awareness it was promoting, the research the funds pay for, it just moved me so much I decided I had to be a part of it.”
In his first two years fundraising the 49-year-old from Doncaster raised over $8000, and to date, he has raised well over $25,000.
“A lot of what I do is through family and friends, and through my clients. A lot of our clients respect the cause and are quite generous,” Tsigaras said. “I generally send an email at the start of the campaign and ask for a donation, and will follow up a few times in the lead up to the event.”
Tsigaras enjoys the full support of family and friends who are more than happy to help with his fundraising. While many people devoted to the Mother’s Day Classic have had a brush with breast cancer, for Tsigaras his first few years of involvement were purely altruistic. Then he found out one of his male friends had been diagnosed with breast cancer and that’s when what he was doing crystalized.
“My male friend discovered a lump in his breast and had a full mastectomy, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy.” He said. “That experience bought it much closer to home for me, it’s not only the women in my family that support me, but the males do also.”
On Mother’s Day, Tsigaras is awoken at 5 am by an alarm and he heads into the city. Making his way to the start line in the first wave he completes his fundraising journey by running 8km. Once finished he collects an extra medal to give to his Mum.
“She loves it and it shows her what I’ve done for the day.”
