RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
ANZUP ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Below the Belt #YourWay In line with ANZUP’s Strategic Plan to expand the Below the Belt Pedalthon, and to reformat the event during COVID-19, the Below the Belt #YourWay Challenge was held throughout the month of September 2020.
The Below the Belt #YourWay Challenge was open for the month of September and provided participants the option to ride, walk, run, and swim as many kilometres as they could, anywhere and at any time, whilst fundraising for ANZUP.
The Below the Belt #YourWay campaign idea originated from a song penned by ANZUP member Professor Dickon Hayne who recorded it with his two daughters, Zoe and Natasha.
The current www.belowthebelt.org.au website was updated so the branding represented the new activities. The website tracked participants, kilometres, fundraising via leader boards, and other virtual value adds e.g. gamification and badges. All participants required a way to track their kilometres.
This challenge was developed as a digital and virtual campaign to increase engagement and awareness of ANZUP and below the belt cancers, with both current and new supporters. The main objective of the #YourWay Challenge was to raise $100,000 for ANZUP’s clinical trial research via the Below the Belt Research Fund. The funds raised then go on to support the important work of ANZUP clinicians and researchers allowing them to continue to improve treatments and outcomes for those with below the belt cancer during isolation and into the future.
Each participant was able to decide how they wanted to complete the challenge - at home, in their office, outdoors, as a team, with their family, with work colleagues, with a friend or by themselves. They could do it every day or just some days in September. The #YourWay Challenge was a huge success with 237 individual participants and 43 teams involved, completing 72,783kms across Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and beyond. And most impressively the fundraising target was surpassed and an extraordinary $173,000 was raised for the Below the Belt Research Fund.
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