‘Cancer has touched everyone’: Cobram mates join forces for marathon golf fundraiser

By Daniel Webb

Dec 5, 2022

Banding together: Team Slominators during their 2021 effort.

A group of seven mates will come together on Sunday, December 11, with a goal of raising awareness and funds for the Cancer Council.

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The team of Ryan Medcraft, Ryan McDiarmid, Steve Burns, Tim Nolan, Ray Diramacca, Steffi Vogel and Michael McGregor are set to play 72 holes of golf in a row, in an event dubbed ‘The Longest Day’.

Teeing off at the Cobram Barooga Golf Club on Sunday at about 5:15am, the group will play right through until about 7pm that night, with the 2022 edition following a successful event last year.

“We all succeeded in what we wanted to do last year and we raised a bit of money and hopefully a bit of awareness around the club,” Medcraft said.

“Cancer has touched everyone in one way or another, whether personally or indirectly through a family member or whatever.”

Testing skill, strength, and stamina, the event acknowledges the fact that Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, with two in three Australians diagnosed with skin cancer by the age of 70.

The marathon effort is the equivalent to four 18-hole rounds of golf, and with walking between the holes part of the challenge, completing the event is no easy task.

“It takes it out of you,” Medcraft said.

“Last year when we finished, personally I didn’t feel any worse at the end of it than I did after just playing 18 holes, but as soon as I got into the clubhouse and sat down I just hit a wall, that was it.

“All the boys have got kids so we get the kids to come out and they drive golf carts and just carry our bags and that and eskies with drinks and food so our families are part of it as well.”