MORNINGTON cyclist Greg Dalton is proving that passion and pedal power can help change lives, as he throws his support behind the Great Cycle Challenge – a nationwide fundraiser helping fight childhood cancer.
The Great Cycle Challenges sees riders hopping on their bike throughout October and raising funds for the life-saving cancer research being done in the labs at Children’s Medical Research Institute in Westmead. Dalton, 66, who has been doing Great Cycle Challenge for ten years, is a theatre nurse, and survived melanoma cancer 30 years ago.
Despite his minor setback of having a recent knee replacement, he said every kilometre was for the kids. “I’m motivated to helping Children’s Medical Research Institute; children should be living their lives not going through the horrible treatment of cancer and I thought this was a way I can help out in my own way,” he said.
Dalton, who mainly rides from home to Mordialloc, said his initial goal was to reach $500 but with a positive response, he was now hoping to achieve raising $1000, adding it was amazing to see people get behind it.
The Children’s Medical Research Institute’s newest research team is focussing on how to improve the diagnosis and treatment of childhood cancer. The team, led by Dr Rebecca Poulos, aims to give clinicians a new way to determine, using analysis of the proteins in a child’s cancer, what treatments will and won’t work.
“Cancer is the leading cause of death from disease in Australian children,’’ Dr Poulos said. “There is an urgent need to improve precision medicine to advance outcomes in hard-to-treat paediatric cancers.
“Protein test results should better predict cancer treatment response because most anti-cancer drugs interact directly with proteins.
“Within five years we want to be able to deliver these very specific test reports, routinely into the clinic,’’ she said. “We want to be able to give clinicians confidence by giving them more information so they can decide on the most appropriate treatment.’’
Donations to support Dalton’s ride can made be made through:
greatcyclechallenge.com.au/riders/GregDalton
First published in the Mornington News – 28 October 2025
