Fundraising that changes lives

When you ride, you do more than turn pedals. You become the reason a newly diagnosed man can pick up the phone and speak to a nurse who understands. You become the reason his wife can sit with a counsellor and find the words for what she's feeling. You become the reason a peer support group meets next month, the reason the Prost-FIT class runs, the reason the research keeps moving forward.

Prostate cancer affects 1 in 8 Kiwi men. The Prostate Cancer Foundation walks alongside more than 42,000 of them and their families through diagnosis, treatment and recovery. None of that support is government funded. All of it is funded by people like you. Every dollar you raise puts care directly into the hands of someone who needs it.

Every kilometre you ride says the same thing: no man will face this alone.

"Men don't like talking about it. Whether that's because of embarrassment or thinking that they're bulletproof, I want men to understand that it is their right, even at 40 years of age, to get checked for prostate cancer." Tony Dodunski

When specialists told Tony Dodunski he should go home and prepare for the worst, he never dreamed that eight years later he would be riding in a 4-hour endurance cycling event. From being wheelchair bound to finding a new ability to exercise and love life without the amount of pain he had become accustomed to, Tony rode alongside his son and daughter (both previous participants) in Pedal4Prostate 2019.

Having only discovered he had prostate cancer by chance during a hernia operation in 2009, Tony was passionate about raising awareness of the disease, and encouraging men to get regular checks.

Sadly Tony lost his battle with prostate cancer early in 2020, his family and whānau riding in his honour at Hampton Downs later that year, and in the hope that through sharing their story, and their participation in Pedal4Prostate, men will be encouraged to forget the stigma around prostate checks and realise early detection is the key to survival.