Maddi Sharpe recently caught up over coffee with Emmalee Crispin (colleague and friend) to talk about being a part of Team Taylah and the phenomenal fundraising journey they’ve been on so far.

Tell us about Taylah and what inspired you to start Team Taylah?

My friend Tegan’s daughter Taylah was the most bubbly, cheeky, vibrant little girl you’d ever meet. She would light up the room, and just had such a personality. Taylah was 6 when she was diagnosed in June 2014 with an inoperable type of brain tumour located in the brain stem called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). She passed away 11 months later in May 2015, just short of her 8th birthday. She spent 6 weeks during this time living at Ronald McDonald House in Perth and having daily radiation and chemotherapy.

Team Taylah (which includes Tegan, my mum Theo and myself) started fundraising for Cure Brain Cancer Foundation in August 2016 after we decided to participate in Perth’s Walk4BrainCancer. Instead of just registering and walking, we really wanted to make an impact for Taylah and raise as much as we could to fight for a cure. We ended up raising $4,226 in 3 months. We put on some pink tutus, like Taylah would have loved, and walked in November.

Tell us about the Walk4BrainCancer?

The Walk4BrainCancer is a 5km morning walk along the South Perth Foreshore to raise funds and awareness for brain cancer research. It’s been running since 2015 however it had to switch to a ‘virtual walk’ in 2020 as we couldn’t do it in person due to COVID. Team Taylah has been walking since 2016 and began volunteering with the running of the day in 2018. This includes a 6:30am start to set up, followed by checking in all the walkers and assisting with the overall running of the event. This was a big step in our continued involvement with Cure Brain Cancer and the Walk4BrainCancer. Each year gets bigger and we are always looking for ways to be more involved.

It is a great day out and gives you the opportunity to meet people who have been affected by brain cancer and to spread the word about how important finding a cure is. In 2019, the Perth-based walk surpassed 1,000 walkers and it’s just growing more and more every year.

What are your fundraising goals?

When we started back in 2016 at our first walk, our donation goal was $1,000. When we exceed that by $3,226 in such a short time span we were blown away. For each year after that we really wanted to push ourselves and up our goal. In the second year we raised $4,079, the third year was $10,429 and this year we hope to continue with these efforts. We have been really fortunate to have supporters from communities all over Australia that are so generous and giving. We wouldn’t be where we are now if we didn’t have such amazing community members backing us.

This became even more evident during the pandemic. We lost the opportunity for many of our face-to-face fundraising events but we still had people buying beanies and getting involved from afar. The level of encouragement and support we received, even with the uncertainty everyone was facing, was beyond incredible and we are so grateful for our Team Taylah army.

Describe a typical day of fundraising

We fundraise all year round leading up to November, with bake sales, sausage sizzles, donation tins and raffles. We have hit the jackpot selling beanies/ponytail beanies for the last three years and that takes up a lot of time. I wake up to beanie orders and fall asleep to them. Almost every day of the week in my spare time I’m packaging, posting, tracking and responding to order enquires. It’s a mammoth job, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. We have several businesses in Albany, Denmark and Manjimup that have stocked our beanies with hopefully more locations including Perth.

All money we raise goes to the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation in Australia. In the 2016/17 financial year, 44 cents in every dollar was allocated to research, while more than 62 cents in every dollar contributed directly to the cause, which is world-class research, advocacy and awareness.

What makes you happy?

Getting to see Taylah make a difference when she’s not here. The impact her story continues to have not only locally but worldwide is something some of us can only dream of. Unfortunately, the survival rate and cure didn’t come in time for Taylah but that’s why we keep pushing through with our fundraising - we want the future to be a reality for sufferers of brain cancer.

To end with a Helen Keller quote that has really inspired myself and Team Taylah “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”.

If you’d like to buy a beanie, donate to Cure Brain Cancer Foundation’s Walk4Brain Cancer or even just keep up with Team Taylah’s journey check out their social media and get in touch.

Where can we get more information?

https://www.facebook.com/teamtaylah/

Instagram @teamtaylah

Team Taylah