Straying from my usual blog posts this one is for something a little different, although it still involves a celebrity!!!

On Sunday I had the opportunity to spend the day with over a thousand other people at the Wellness Walk and Research Run an event that raised money for the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre. Everyone has been touched by cancer in one way or another and this is just one small way of helping… I may not have raised as much as others but every little bit counts and I’m just glad to have had the opportunity.

You can visit my page to see how I went with donations: Janelle aka Smiley and if you’re feeling generous donations are still accepted until the end of September!

This is the fifth year the event has been run and this was the biggest year yet, I’m so glad to have had the opportunity to join in. The event was held at the La Trobe University Bundoora Campus and the weather was incredible, such a lovely sunny day. The scenery in this location is beautiful, I am fortunate to experience this scenery regular as I work at La Trobe but the atmosphere of this event brought another element and was fantastic to experience.

I first heard about the event through work when I was asked to join a team of colleagues. I haven’t been able to walk a lot lately so I decided to register and give myself the push I needed to get walking again. To get right into the spirit of it all I also decked myself out with some of the Wellness Walk gear a T-Shirt and a Cap, plus I brought a Clapper for the noise factor and for a bit of fun! I also brought one of the green and blue ribbon badges as well.

After some before the walk entertainment of music, Olivia got up on stage for a little pre-walk chat, during this time the founders of the gym franchise Curves got on stage with Olivia and presented her with a check for a 250,000 donation, which was pretty amazing! ‪After a quick warm up session by the Curves team and a little bit of the Nutbush the walk was then started off my Olivia herself who unfortunately was unable to complete the entire walk this year due to her current cancer battle.

As we made our way around the course there was the perfect moment to pose for some photographs as we passed the Rhinoceros’ statues. There were props and all sorts for photos, we didn’t grap any of the props but we did get a team photo with the Rhino’s. And I had to get some photos of just myself as I was the only one who climbed up on the Rhino. Some police officers who were also on the walk joined in the fun to get a photo with the Rhino’s. This was definitely entertaining and a great bit of fun along the walk.

Even though she was unable to walk the walk Olivia was still there to cheer everyone on as they made their way around the 5km track, seeing her there clapper in one hand and bubble maker in the other definitely but a smile on my face and I’m sure many many other faces too.

Olivia is an inspiration, she’s a fighter and she has done so much for the cancer community. Almost everyone has been touched by cancer in some way be it themselves, a family member or friend. You have to appreciate and respect the work Olivia has done with her Wellness Centre and also the research they do. It’s amazing what one person can do for such a large community and to see so many people come out on Sunday in support of Olivia and other cancer suffers was amazing.

It was the first time I had ever done anything like this before, walking for charity and I’m so glad that I got the chance. On a personal note this walk is what pushed me into get back to walking again, which I had to stop after a recent injury to my foot… unfortunately it is still not 100% but I managed to walk the 5km without too much pain so it’s a start and now I’m going to push myself to walk a little bit every day… and hopefully I can join in the walk again next year!

As I mentioned at the start of this post this is something a little different to my usual posts but it was such a great event and experience to be apart of I just wanted to share it with you. I also want to take a moment to thank all those who sponsors me on this walk, your donations mean a lot and all of the money raised goes to helping this amazing charity.

Check out the below News Report on the event: