By TANIA PHILLIPS
THERE were tears of joy as conquering heroes Christine and Ian Robins returned to Stanthorpe on Monday with 1000s of kilometres under their belts and up to $40,000 in the bank for cancer research.
The pair left home last year to trek around Australia – Christine, 64, on the road and Ian, 65 on Monday, in the support car.
And now minus a few toenails and after suffering a stroke six weeks ago, Christine is taking a bit of time to put her feet up – kind of.
“We are going to keep raising money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) and the Prostrate Cancer Foundation of Australia,” Christine said.
“We’ve formed a new group Purple Dove Awareness Group on Facebook. and we have market coming up this weekend at the Heart Of the Summit Markets on Sunday.
“I’m also going to do a bit of work with the homeless too.”
But first they have a few health problems to work through. Christine said she felt some weakness in one side of her face and problems with her eye a few weeks ago and sought medical help, only to be told by her doctor she’d had a stroke.
“I’m on my way up to the eye specialist in Toowoomba,” she said.
“Just getting old, I suppose.”
Ian will undergo tests next week after his PSA levels increased recently. In fact, it was Ian’s original diagnosis with prostate cancer that triggered this walk.
In true support, his wife Christine (64) chose to join him on the mammoth challenge to raise funds for prostate and breast cancer research.
“We wanted to raise awareness of breast and prostate cancer, and the importance of research, at every stop. We invited local communities to get involved and to talk about their own experiences, too. We hoped to play a role in promoting early detection by talking to people about our own experiences,” said Christine Robins.
She said that they believed they were able to get the word out about early detection and enjoyed that part of the trip. But it sounds like the whole trip proved to be a lot of fun – hard work – but a lot of fun.
And the highlights?
“The people we met,” Christine said.
“We are keeping in touch with them and hopefully some will come and visit.
“The most disappointing thing was the rubbish on the side of the road.”
