backing every rider, every km
At the MACA Cancer 200, Yellow Flag Riders stand as a powerful symbol of unwavering strength and resilience in the face of cancer.
These extraordinary individuals, who proudly display yellow flags on their bikes and wear yellow flag pins at Mandurah Camp have confronted or are facing cancer head-on, demonstrating remarkable dedication to funding breakthroughs in cancer research.
Traditionally, the MACA Cancer 200 Ride begins with Yellow Flag Riders leading the pack out of Optus Stadium on route to Mandurah. Embodying the spirit of triumph and progress in the collective fight against cancer.
The Ride welcomes participants personally affected by cancer to acknowledge their personal journey of determination.
Meet some of the Yellow Flag Riders who have conquered the Ride.
Fundraising for cancer research is more than just a cause for me, it's a personal mission.
KYM MENZIES
team maca 2024
In 2015, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Despite surgeries and treatments, the cancer spread to my right lung and resulted in Transverse Myelitis causing paraplegia. The doctors gave me five years, but I plan on surpassing their expectations. I have unfinished business, including participating in the Ride.
In 2022, my wife Jan and I planned to ride for the first time, but I ended up in the hospital due to a loss of leg sensation. My condition worsened, leading to an emergency bowel operation that saved my life. However, the ongoing effects of Transverse Myelitis did mean I would spend the next five and a half months in hospital.
Through the support of my family and the wonderful care by the staff at Fiona Stanley Hospital and Joondalup Health Campus I learnt how to walk again and strengthen my motor skills. With Jan by my side, I tackled and finished the 2023 Ride.
It was a huge challenge but I'll be back again this year.
Nicky copper
Team ride my wheel
After years of my sister asking me to get a pap smear, I went in January 2019.
I then went on my planned months long holiday to Europe. On my return there was a letter waiting for me to contact the doctor to discuss the results. I was told the pap smear had yielded abnormal results. Several weeks later after a colposcopy and biopsy, the results came back, I had cervical cancer.
I was numb but when I had to tell my partner, parents and sister, it became devastatingly real.
My partner and I asked my doctors if we could try for a baby, but unfortunately, time was not on our side, and I had to undergo a radical hysterectomy. But doing that meant I was spared chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Thankfully in February 2023, I received the all clear, but the trauma remains. The surgery, four years of anxiety and the impact this disease had on my loved ones lingers, but cancer has also given me courage. I even switched careers to something that gives me joy!
I ride because more than anything, I want to raise awareness of the importance of cancer research and cancer screening. My cancer allows me to have important conversations with friends, family and colleagues. And by joining the Ride, it’s a way to give back to the research that I have so benefitted from.
“Cancer has given me so much courage.”
“I wouldn’t be here without medical research.”
Gary Rowles
TEAM BUSH BIKERS
I wouldn’t wish cancer on anyone. I’ve seen how devastating it is to not just to the person but to everyone around them who loves them. I know because my stepdad Paddy died five years ago from stomach cancer and we still feel the loss today.
He should still be with us to sit at the table at family dinners, to tell us about the recent travels and places he explored with Mum. He should have been there, smiling proudly, in the family photos from my daughter’s recent wedding.
When he was diagnosed with cancer he never complained. Even while suffering with a lot of pain and going through chemo. Unfortunately, his cancer was too evasive and the treatment was ineffective. Throughout it all my mum dedicated herself to making sure he was looked after, but there is nothing worse in life than having to look at a loved one and feel completely useless.
Paddy was eventually given six months and while his condition declined rapidly, his outlook was always upbeat. He even knew when he was ready to go, sending mum off to dinner with her friends, to save her the heartache of being with him when he passed.
So even when my team moans about how hard riding 200km is, we always show up. Because we each believe cancer research must continue so that researchers can make people’s lives more bearable and hopefully find a cure.
bec lawry
team perkins
In 2020 my low iron levels revealed that I had colon cancer. I couldn’t believe it. I was 33 with a young family and the thought of the journey ahead terrified me.
My treatment has been tough. It’s included a peritonectomy and HIPEC chemo along with all the scans and a year of immunotherapy. A subsequent second peritonectomy found that my cancer has now spread extensively.
My life is now in stasis as I continue to fight against the cancer and the side effects of my treatment. Frustratingly this has also meant I am unable to work which has been very hard to accept.
I decided to join the Ride for myself and my family. I want to show my girls that nothing is impossible, and Mum’s going to fight this awful disease the best she can.
It’s my hope that I can raise awareness and money for cancer research so that others may not go through this awful disease. Every little bit counts, and I’m determined to get out there and join other riders on Ride weekend.
“I want to show my girls nothing is impossible if you put your mind it.”
honour your journey
Are you a rider who has first-hand experience with cancer?
The Ride warmly invites you to acknowledge your journey, whether past or present by receiving a yellow flag. The yellow flag symbolises your fight with cancer and how many years you have fought this disease.
As a yellow flagger you will also receive a yellow lapel pin that you may proudly wear and an invitation to lead riders out of Optus Stadium to start the Ride weekend.
