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20th - 22nd April 2023

2023 Tour de Rocks - We have a Date!

Grab your diary, pick up a pen and open it to April 2023. The date for the 10th Tour de Rocks Charity Bike Ride has been set. Drumroll please...

Thursday 20th - Saturday 22nd April 2023

We are also pleased to announce that we are going back to South West Rocks as well!

So, it will be Georges Junction (after a ride down that "little hill") Thursday night, Willawarrin Showground (a short stroll across the road to the Willawarrin Hotel) Friday night and finish at South West Rocks about Saturday lunchtime.

As always, we will have plans in place - just in case something changes.

Registrations will open - 8th AUGUST 2022!
Fees and Charges for 2023 will be basically unchanged. You will have the option of an upfront Donation, selling Raffle Tickets, or the Fundraising Option.

We are implementing a new Registration Platform this year. It is a bit different to what you have used in the past. So, please be patient with us.

We will email the link and instructions to you soon. So, keep an eye out for them.

Fundraising Pages
For those who select the "Fundraising Registration Option", a Fundraising Page will been created for you. You are able to customise this page to help reach your target. Remember, to share your page via email, social media, any way you can to get the message out there.

To help everyone else, Fundraising Pages will be created for you as well.
You will be able to create Team Fundraising Pages and link to them as well. Then, share the pages via email, social media, word of mouth, any way you can.

Fundraising is a very important part of Tour de Rock so we can raise much needed funds for Cancer Research and Services. So, it is up to all of us to raise as much as we can.

Let's make 2023 a BIG year!

More Information to Come!
Planning for this awesome event is full steam ahead and we will be back in touch soon with further details and information.

We have some great things planned for our 10th Anniversary - so stay tuned!

Now, what are you waiting for? Time to jump on that bike, turn those pedals and get yourself ready....

WE CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL IN APRIL 2023!

2022 - The Graham Family Goes Riding

Many of you will remember Zane Graham, from the Coastal Cruisers.

Zane rode in the Children's ride on Day 2 with his mother (Kate).

He then backed up to ride the final day with his father (Steve) and brothers (Brodie and Olly).

It was very special to see Zane lead everyone into Sport UNE Armidale for the finish of the ride.

Well done Zane. You are in inspiration to all of us.

Zane wrote this fantastic article, about the 2022 Tour de Rocks Ride, for his School Newsletter.

Please have a read (CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW) and I'm sure you will agree this sums up the Tour de Rocks experience and why we do what we do.

Thanks to Zane (and the Graham Family) for allowing us to share this fantastic article with our Tour de Rocks Community.

19 for 19 Challenge - 2022 here we go!

Dear Friends,

Thank you for supporting Anya’s Wish!

Your generosity has helped kick-start the Children’s Cancer Institute's (CCI) much-needed research to find more effective treatments for young osteosarcoma patients, and importantly, drug therapies which are more gentle for their bodies.

Anya was only 13 when she was diagnosed with high-grade metastatic osteosarcoma – an aggressive and life-threatening bone cancer. After a long and painful period of treatment and despite receiving positive results in August 2016, Anya’s cancer returned in May 2020 and she devastatingly lost her courageous battle on 12 September 2020.

Anya’s Wish was that her body and experience with the disease be focussed into research to end childhood sarcomas.

By supporting Anya’s Wish, you’re helping to leave a life-saving legacy for thousands of children who suffer with osteosarcoma every year. Thank you!

Research Update
Developing innovative ways of growing osteosarcoma cells in the lab to investigate novel drug treatments.

'Anya's Wish’ CCI researcher Zara Barger has been testing a panel of three similar drugs on previously acquired osteosarcoma cell cultures grown in the lab. These drugs have been selected out of more than 160 others which already registered for use in adult treatments, but which cannot as yet be used for children's osteosarcoma treatments until trialled and scientifically proven. We are excited to announce that CCI's experiments have revealed that one of these drugs (Drug A) is highly effective in killing osteosarcoma cells, while not affecting healthy, non-tumour cells.

It's a breakthrough!

World-first methods to fast-track early success.

But that’s not all. These experiments can only be done with live osteosarcoma cell cultures which until now have been very hard to grow and keep alive in the lab. So to help fast track their experiments, the CCI team have developed world-first methods of cultivating these cells more quickly, and keeping them alive for longer to help accelerate drug trials. CCI are currently writing these findings up for publishing and international peer review, while continuing to fine-tune their methods. This means that our efforts can be accelerated to find better and more gentle treatments for children with osteosarcoma, and save more young lives, sooner.

To date, our Anya's Wish team have established a protocol and tested five osteosarcoma patient live cell cultures, and Drug A continues to show promise. They plan to trial a further 10 patient samples over the next few months, and are very excited by the promise of these preliminary results.

Thanks to your support, the realisation of 'Anya's Wish' for more effective and gentle treatments for childhood osteosarcoma is looming, ever closer. It's not if, it's when.

19 for 19 Challenge - Sunday 16th October!

Last November, we launched the inaugural 19 for 19 Challenge. We're so grateful for those who joined us to honour the 19 precious years that Anya lived for, whether they participated in the 19km walk in Armidale or took part virtually from both near - Brisbane, Melbourne and Alice Springs - and far - Germany and Canada!

Together, we were able to raise over $130,000 to go towards our goal of $600,000 for osteosarcoma research.

Please join us in 2022! Rally your family and friends to walk 19 km with us in the breathtaking beautiful New England gorge country or join in your own 19 for 19 Challenge.

Again, thank you so much for all your wonderful support and honouring Anya's memory by joining us on this journey to discover more effective treatments for osteosarcoma.

With love,
The 19 for 19 Challenge Team!