Wish You Were Here Puts on the Biggest Gala Event for Pancreatic Cancer

There has been a team of men working hard all year to make a significant difference and to honor their best friend, Peter Grima.

We first met the Wish You Were Here team in March when they told us about how they had lost their best mate to Pancreatic Cancer and their ambitious plan to walk the Kokoda Trail in September and hold a Gala Dinner in November.

Our initial reaction from that meeting was that these guys had heart, but did they really understand what they were taking on? Their response; “That’s exactly the point! Who truly understands the challenge that Pancreatic Cancer throws at someone? This challenge is all about us striving for understanding and stepping up to to meet it”. We were humbled by what was about to unfold and by how aligned these guys were to the DNA of our Foundation.

Their enthusiasm and passion would prove to overshadow the challenge ahead, to walk one of the most grueling walks in the world and then to put on a Gala Dinner, all from a standing start.

September came and the Wish You Were Here team took on the Kokoda Trail with determination and grit. They proved what mateship is all about and how we can face and understand the challenge of cancer, together. They went for it like a band of brothers and emerged stronger as a team, ready to take on an even bigger challenge, to put on the Biggest Event ever held in Australia for Pancreatic Cancer.

We are talking about some very busy men here. They were running businesses, looking after families, living typically busy Sydney lives and even hosting a huge wedding but somehow by November 8th they pulled it off, and put on the Biggest Event for Pancreatic Cancer ever held in this country.

The only thing that topped the extraordinary effort was the way the whole event reflected the heart and passion that these caring and generous men were all about.

The event was held in a very cool venue, a massive old train maintenance building that had been converted to an exhibition hall at Australian Technology Park in Eveleigh, Sydney. More than 610 people came and experienced a wonderful night of entertainment and speeches.

The respect and love that was shared in that space that night for people who had been impacted by Pancreatic Cancer was phenomenal.

It was a landmark event for Avner’s Foundation. We can’t thank the Wish You Were Here team enough. They didn’t just raise a huge amount of money for Medical Research into the disease, but they galvanised something; our determination and grit to keep going on to fight against one of the worst cancers around.