After tragically losing her dad to brain cancer, Noosa local Sophia Marian, 21, is honouring Bruce by giving back to the foundations that helped her family during his final weeks.
Her best-friend Leila Jacob, 20, has been by her side the entire time, and now she’s helping raise funds by competing at Tatts Finke Desert Race in Alice Springs, which is classed as one of the toughest off-road events in the world.
So far, they’ve raised just over $1000, and they need the community’s help to reach their $20K target before the 460km race on 6 June.
Sophia said, “We’re honouring my dad, Bruce Marian, who passed away just 10 weeks after being diagnosed with terminal Glioblastoma. It is a highly aggressive type of brain tumour with no known cure.“
“My dad passed away on my birthday last year. That was something that a lot of people looked at me and they were like, ’How are you going to be able to deal with that?’ I said, ’Honestly, I couldn’t have been gifted with anything better. I’ll have him with me every year.’“
In her dad’s final weeks of his life, he was told to start ticking off his bucket list. With this, Bruce smiled and said, “I’ve been doing that my whole life”.
Sophia said his final days were full of music, food, beer, and ocean breezes — his kind of love.
Having fulfilled his bucket list long before his passing has been something that inspired the girls.
“Leila actually only got into dirt biking about six months ago,“ Sophia said, “We were on a camping trip and she was like, ’How cool would be to get a dirt bike?’ And then two days later she bought the dirt bike. Now, she’s racing in one of the world’s hardest enduro races.
“She’s been told that she won’t be able to do this race and she’s got that motive to prove people wrong.“
Despite knowing what the future held for him, Bruce sat with zero regrets in his life, and sought ways to help others battling the same thing.
“When he was actually diagnosed with it, the first thing he thought of was, ’How can we make this easier for other people?’ And it just shook the whole family,“ Sophia said.
To honour her dad’s legacy, the money raised will be distributed amongst Ambulance Wish QLD (AWQ), Katie Rose Cottage, Palliative Care QLD, and Queensland Rural, Regional, and Remote Cancer Network.
“We ended up caring for dad at home ourselves, but Katie Rose kept a spot open for him,“ Sophia said.
“They actually can’t open up a spot for longer than like two days, but they had it open for him for about a week for us to go in there. My Pop (grandpa) passed away and was in Katie Rose hospice as well. They’re a beautiful community foundation and we just wanted to give back to them.
“AWQ gave my dad his last beach day. They give patients that have life ending illnesses their last wish, and dad’s last wish was to go down to the beach. So, they organised everything for us and they gave us a beautiful last day down there for dad.“
May is Brain Cancer Awareness Month. This fundraiser is for every family facing this fight and feeling alone.
“Awareness changes lives. Access saves them. Let’s do more. This community deserves it,“ Sophia said.
To donate today visit the ’Let’s go grey in May together’ page on GoFundMe at shorturl.at/pL3bQ
