A Broken Hill man is running, riding and rowing more than 500 kilometres this month to help raise funds for paediatric cancer research at the University of South Australia.
By lunchtime on Monday, Adrian Isbill had raised more than $10,800 for Charlie's Rainbow — a fundraiser created in memory of the three-year-old who died of acute myeloid leukaemia in 2021.
Mr Isbill said the cause felt close to home as his son George was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in December 2019.
Every month the Isbill family travels 512 kilometres from Broken Hill to Adelaide's Women's and Children's Hospital for George's treatment.
He said he set that distance as his goal in an effort to help raise awareness.
"The more people that are aware of it, the more people that are aware that it does impact people close to them and there's nothing more behind it but the luck of the draw as to whether you're life is impacted or not," he said.
Charlie's parents are 'incredible'
Mr Isbill said he had already completed more than 300km of the challenge.
He said the response to his fundraising efforts had been amazing.
"It's starting to get a bit of a grip in the broader community, which I guess is what I initially aimed to do to broaden people's understanding and get people reading not just my story but also Charlie's story," he said.
Adrian's wife, Kathryn Isbill, said they were at the Women's and Children's Hospital's Michael Rice Ward with George the same time Charlie and his family were there.
Charlie had been in the room next door.
"His parents are just incredible," she said.
'It definitely takes its toll'
Ms Isbill said she was shocked when the paediatrician told them it would be a three-and-half year process to work through George's treatment.
She said that would span a large chunk of his childhood after being diagnosed with the condition soon after his first birthday.
"Your life as a parent is on hold as well. It definitely takes its toll," she said.
"Even once we finish chemotherapy we will all still be concerned about secondary cancers which is a high probability."
She said despite the taxing nature of the treatment the family was doing well.
"In times like these ... it kind of either breaks you down and you go into your own little hole or you can try and band together and work it out as a family, and I think that's the way that we have ended up," she said.
"[It's] probably from like a bit of coincidence and probably a bit of about who we are, and also that's the way we wanted to do it."
