Sunday, October 29, 2000

Heart and sole cause

Polly Letofsky is walking the globe for breast cancer.

The 38-year-old American does not have the disease, but she feels strongly about the biggest cancer killer of women in Australia and has two aunts who have suffered from it.

Breast cancer kills 2600 and afflicts another 10,000 women annually in Australia.

When she leaves St  Kilda Pier at 1pm today it will mark the start of the Australian leg of a 28,900 km journey that will take five years to complete.

Her goal is to raise awareness of breast cancer ad to raise money for the Breast Cancer Fund, the San Francisco-based non-profit organization dedicated to research and education.

She wants to raise more the $650,000 and so far has raised about $110,000.

While walking in Australia Polly is also urging people to donate funds to the Breast Cancer Network Australia.

Polly has already walked from Colorado to the Pacific Coast in the United States and has also walked the length of New Zealand.

In Australia, she hopes to cover 4023km in 10 months.

She will hot-foot it from Melbourne to Port Douglas before flying to Asia where she will walk through Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, china and then move on to Russia, the Ukraine, Europe, Canada and back to the U.S.

The urge to walk the world, which has meant abandoning boyfriend and career, began at a young age.

“I got the idea to walk around world when I was a very young kid, but unlike a lot of the grand ideas of children, this one stuck and has been popping up for years,” she said. 

As she is not earning an income during the walk, Ms Letofsky relies on hospitality.

Best Western and Hotel Backpack donated motel accommodation and she feels sure private citizens will also open their doors.

In New Zealand I was put up everywhere and Australians seem equally generous,” she said.

Those interested in following Polly’s adventure can farewell her at St Kilda Pier today or go to her web site at Globalwalk.org.

Donations can be made to the Breast Cancer Network Australia on (03) 9805 2500.

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