This is no ordinary fund-raising story ...
Well to be fair, it started out as one. But recently, things have taken quite a dramatic, and almost unbelievable, turn. Our rally team, “Sunday Drivers”, has gone from taking on cancer as an arm’s length charity supporter, to having our lives turned upside down by it in just a few months. The cause has become a mission, and a deeply personal one.
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G'day I’m Scott, and as it turns
Sunday Drivers finishing the Shitbox Rally, 2024
out, the least important person in this story. Like most people in busy jobs, I’ve been absorbed by work and life for decades now and whilst I’ve occasionally been able to organise a cooking day for the homeless, or the odd charity bike ride, for the most part I’ve felt like I haven’t been doing enough. So, as most of you can probably associate with, I had all the right intentions, but not always the right actions. ​
But, in this story, I’m just the storyteller. The true hero is my life
Scott cooking for the homeless, OzHarvest, 2023
long friend Ben Cameron, and his family. Ben and I, and his wife Samantha, all went to high school together and have been friends, well, ... pretty much forever. In fact, when I decided to run away from home at the age of 16 (for all of 48 hours), it was Ben’s couch I crashed on, intruding not just on him, but on his mum, his dad and his sister Polly.
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A few years back, after taking on various C-suite roles over his career, Ben decided to reorganise his priorities and, unlike me, he’s been able to match intention with action. He became passionate about raising money for cancer and, among other things, has participated in the “Shitbox” and “Mysterybox” rallies on five occasions.
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Box Rallies is the Cancer Council’s biggest community fundraiser, having raised over $50 million for cancer prevention and treatment research.
Business up top, party down below! Ben and Scott in the early 90's before their Year 10 formal. Ben's the one with his eyes actually open!
Every year, like clockwork, Ben has called me to ask me to participate, and predictably, I’ve said I’m too busy with work and that he’d need to find somebody else to co-drive with him.
And no matter how many times I and others said no, Ben would persist until he convinced someone to join him. As a result, he has now raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Cancer Council and whilst it wasn’t a cause he had an especially personal connection with, he found a way to give something back, prioritising this rally year after year after year.
So early last year, as had become the tradition, Ben called me once again to ask if I’d enter. Persistence is a virtue (or it should be), because I finally mustered the courage to prioritise something other than myself and to enter the rally with Ben as my co-driver.
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​For those of you that haven’t heard of it, the Shitbox Rally is a simple but fun concept. It challenges teams of two to find cheap ($1,500 or less) and often ill-suited cars and try to get them to survive a rugged outback journey over 7 days and 4,000kms whilst raising much needed money.
Ben at various box rallies over the last 5 years
Approximately 4,000kms over Australia's roughest, reddest roads
As you might imagine, it helps to have someone mechanically minded on your team. Luckily for me, Ben more than has this covered so we agreed to divide and conquer with Ben’s job being to take on all the mechanical aspects, and my job to look after the fundraising.
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With that in mind, Ben found us a 1984 Peugeot 505 for exactly $1,500. Sporting an impressive 312,000 kms on the clock, Ben quite excitedly drove it into my driveway, horn beeping, smile blazing, showing off his new acquisition.
It was at that moment that I fully understood how the rally got its name. Peeling paint, rusted part lines, and in the few minutes it took to take the below photograph, good old Percy the Peugeot had leaked several tablespoons of oil onto my driveway.
The fan belt screeched every time we started her up, the air conditioning no longer cooled (hey it’s only driving through the Australian desert!) and the windscreen wipers kind of staggered in slow steps up and down the windscreen as opposed to gliding back and forth as you might expect.
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​But, we had a car! And whilst Ben and Sam had recently moved 6 hours south
2024 with Ben and my son Josh getting the Peugeot home for the first time complete with peeling and missing paint on the bonnet and roof and the various rust patches. And the oil stain’s still on the driveway!
near Merimbula, Ben assured me he could be back in Sydney regularly to make all the necessary repairs and preparations. So off to the Shitbox Rally we were destined to become! Or, so we thought ....
​Life was about to throw some serious curveballs. At the end of May last year, a few months after we’d signed up, Ben's wife Sam was diagnosed with breast cancer.
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The good news was they’d found it relatively early. The bad news was that it was triple negative, the most aggressive form and, due to her family history, they wanted to move very swiftly. The chemo and radiation journey was going to last until the end of January 2025 and obviously absorb almost all of Ben and Sam’s focus.
November 2024, Sam showing off her chemo bandana as Ben and I join her near Tura Beach
A few months later, just as the routine of Sam’s chemo and medical appointments were starting to feel normal, Ben received a call about his sister Polly. ​ Polly had fainted unexpectedly and was taken to hospital for a scan. The doctors found a sizeable Glioblastoma tumour growing around her optic nerve. Whilst surgery, radiation and chemo could help slow its progress, there was no cure.
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Between gaps in Sam’s weekly chemo routine, Ben rushed to Sydney to be beside Polly as doctors explained the journey ahead and as Polly was taken to surgery for what would be a 7 hour craniotomy (performed whilst Polly was awake). Surgeons were able to remove about 90% of the tumour and were optimistic that, with a few months of chemo and radiation, Polly could enjoy a few years yet.
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Polly, only in her 40’s, has two small daughters; Emily aged 6 and Piper aged 4, two of the cutest and loveliest little girls you’d ever dream of meeting.
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Polly is a single mum, having conceived both girls via a sperm donor, so Ben and Sam, with their own two kids now both grown up and in their 20’s, will become Emily and Piper’s guardians when Polly no longer can. Emily and Piper moved in with Ben and Sam in November last year and Polly moved in a few months later, after her surgery and treatment were completed. Suffice to say, life just got a hell of a lot more real for the Cameron family.
Ben and Sam waiting at airport arrivals with pre-prepared signs.
When I came down to visit them in November last year, even with all they were going through, Ben and Sam both greeted me at the airport and, with sense of humours still in check, held up signs at the arrivals gate showing my name and high school roll call number.
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In fact, despite the worst few months of their lives, Ben and Sam have continued to stay positive and soldier on. Even after Polly’s diagnosis, Ben remained firmly committed to the rally. He didn’t want to let me or the charity down and it was taking on so much more meaning than it ever had before.
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But with all the obvious delays and distractions, Percy the Peugeot had run out of registration and would need extra work to get registered and partake in the rally. So, in early February,
after getting the girls and Polly settled in Tura Beach, Ben packed his van with all his tools and made the six hour drive up to my house to work with me on the car.
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The to do list was pretty extensive; from pulling engines apart and resealing rocker covers, to fluid and tyre changes, to air filters and alternators, to installing a metal bash plate under the car to protect the engine from the many flying rocks on the unsealed roads we’d be encountering. And somewhere in there, passing a mechanical inspection for rego. All of this was definitely more Ben’s wheelhouse than mine.
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Ben arrived at my house on Monday night ready for the two of us to tackle the to do list the next day. Early the very next morning, Ben received a call that Polly had just been rushed to hospital. And so, at 6am on the Tuesday, having driven 6 hours north to Sydney the day before, Ben got back in his car and started the drive back home.
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Unfortunately, Polly’s MRIs showed aggressive regrowth of the tumour, despite the chemo and radiation program having just been completed, along with concerning levels of swelling. After a week in hospital and with some new medication, Polly was able to return home to her family again.
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It was at this point, that Ben finally conceded the fight and pulled out of the rally realising his presence needed to be at home. But, making sure the charity wouldn’t be impacted, he first found a replacement to ride with me in another life-long friend of both of ours named Josh (not to be confused with my son Josh – although “big Josh” was part of the inspiration for “little Josh’s” name).
Josh and I when we had a lot more energy than we do now
Josh and I circa 1992 & 2019
Like Ben, Josh Donohoe is a longtime supporter of charities having worked full-time for Camp Quality for several years and helping raise millions for important causes.
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So now, (big) Josh and I are doing this rally together and we’re dedicating it to Polly, Sam and the Cameron family. We want to raise as much money as possible for Sam, and Polly, and for everyone that gets touched so tragically by cancer.
On the 2nd of May, Josh and I will drive Percy out of Canberra with another 200 odd other drivers, carrying a two-man tent, air mattresses, sleeping bags and, God willing, about a week later we’ll make it to Townsville, having covered some of the reddest, roughest roads in Australia. Percy will show himself off to tens of thousands of supportive locals across Australia along the way.
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We will be covering our journey on Instagram @ Sunday_Drivers_Rally and the trip will also be covered by @ shitboxrally with 15,000 followers on Instagram and over 80,000 followers on Facebook.
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But we really need your help. This year we want to raise much more than usual because it’s personal now. Every donation (all of which are tax deductible) and sponsorship counts.
Help us, and everyone impacted by cancer at http://sundaydrivers.co
Oh and as for Percy, after a crash course in at home mechanics, here’s some snaps of his journey to date;
Sanding back Percy’s old paint and rust. Found out his bonnet used to be yellow!
Painting became a whole family affair (thanks Kayla, Lachlan and little Josh!) 6 coats of primer and chalkboard paint.
Chalk paint is Ben’s rally tradition, allowing locals to write messages on the car throughout the rally
Stopping (or at least slowing down) the oil leak meant pulling apart the top of the engine, cleaning and resealing
Degreasing the engine got rid of residual oil and made it sparkle! Well, … sparkle as much as a 40 year old engine can
Flushing the radiator and fixing the gear box container will hopefully prevent breaking down in the Aussie desert.
And passed the pink slip!
Which means we're street legal folks ...
So here we come Australia!
Help us, and everyone impacted by cancer at http://sundaydrivers.co