Welcome to our virtual marquee!
We are medical researchers, staff, and friends of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI). We’ve received a lot of support from the Cancer Council over the years, and since 2018, we’ve participated in the Melbourne Relay for Life as a way to give something back to the community.
There was no Melbourne Relay for Life in 2020, but we wanted to keep the baton moving in some way. Cancer doesn’t take a break just because there is a novel infectious disease circulating, and neither do we.
Kate and Sarah before and after the deluge at Relay for Life 2019
During the weekend of November 7-8, we walked our messages of support across Melbourne, in order to raise money and awareness for the Cancer Council. You can see photos and read about what we did here.
But that was only a small part of what we plan to do.
One of the things that we really love about the Relay for Life is the opportunity to meet members of the community who have a personal interest in cancer research and in science. We have loved answering your questions, talking about our work, and doing ‘messy science’ with anyone who wants to try their hand at pipetting or making bicarb of soda volcanoes.
Science never sleeps… Rachel at our marquee in 2019
And so we have brought our marquee online, and have filled it with profiles of some of our scientists, instructions for some easy experiments that you can try at home with the kids (or without them!), and opportunities for you to Ask a Scientist your questions about medical research and have them answered.
Obviously, we’d also love it if you would like to sponsor us – but we know that times are hard for a lot of people at the moment. It’s OK if you can’t do that right now, and we hope you will stick around anyway, to see what we are getting up to!
We are so excited to share our love of science with you, and we will continue to post profiles, experiments, and answers to your questions here over the coming months… because Melbourne Relay For Life 2021 is coming up next November, and you can be sure we’ll be back in action for that (and maybe, just maybe, we will get to see some of you there in person!).
The inevitable dragon montage… our 4 x 100m dragon relay at Relay for Life 2018, and the dragon getting out and about at Relay for Life 2019.
Team WEHI Relay for Life 