Inaugural Tour de Cure to raise funds for cancer research

A brand new annual charity event, the Tour de Cure, has been announced, with a view to raising $2 million over the next four years in the fight against cancer. Australia's first Tour de Cure will start on May 28, 2007, when a team of 23 Australian men and women will hit the road from Brisbane to Sydney, riding some 1,100km over 10 days, to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, the National Breast Cancer Foundation and Camp Quality.

The 2007 Tour de Cure will kick off from Myer, Queen Street in Brisbane to continue down the east coast stopping in Tweed Heads, Ballina, Grafton, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Taree, Newcastle and Gosford before being welcomed home at Myer, Pitt Street Mall in Sydney on June 6, 2007.

Each Tour de Cure cyclist must commit to raising $10,000 in donations in order to enter, as well as taking time out to not only participate in the 10 day event, but also to train aggressively in the months leading up to it. This is no mean feat for the 11 Tour de Cure cyclists are CEOs, directors or owners of their respective companies and the 13 that are parents to some 24 children between them.

Cyclists vary in age from 23 to a very young 50 and have been gathered together by 34 year-old Tour de Cure mastermind, Geoff Coombes. "Some of our team members have family members or close friends that have been affected by Cancer, but all are committed to taking time out from their busy professional and family lives to ride for a cure," said the marketing professional, who dreamed up the idea for the Tour de Cure while cycling across America with a friend some ten years ago.

Corporate Australia is also putting its money where its mouth is to support the Tour de Cure with Myer, New Idea, Vittoria Coffee, Dencorub, Sydney City Lexus, Ella Bache, The Pratt Foundation, Intelligent Investor and Choice Hotels all on board as major partners of the 2007 event.

"The whole concept of the event Tour de Cure is wonderfully innovative and is set to be a memorable event for so many people - both the participants, as well as the beneficiaries, the many Australian women and men who have been and will be diagnosed with cancer in the future," said Susan Murray, Chief Executive Offer of the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

To donate or to find out if the Tour de Cure is hitting a town near you, please visit www.tourdecure.com.au.