Horsham’s Mother’s Day Classic committee has praised the event’s participants, volunteers and local businesses for its continued success, which raises money for breast and ovarian cancer research.

Committee member Jackie Exell said this year’s riverside walking and running events attracted about 220 participants, while the fundraising component remained open.

“So far we have had a couple of really great fundraising teams and individuals – our highest fundraising individual was Helen Brown, she raised more than $900,” she said.

“Fundraising is open until June 30, so we won’t get our figures until probably August.” 

Ms Exell said the committee had acted on previous years’ feedback, including a prompt start and changes to its raffle, which would close in about two weeks.

“We will pop a survey on our Facebook page in the next couple of days just asking anyone who participated to complete that, and we’ll take that on board,” she said.

“We’ve got a debrief meeting on June 2 to talk about what everyone thought in a bit more detail.

“We’ll continue to tick along and just make those little tweaks along the way from the feedback we get.”

Ms Exell said Rotary Club of Horsham East volunteers cooked a free barbecue this year.

“We supply them with everything and they cook it for us, which is great, so that was a change this year which I think went down well,” she said.

“This was the 17th year that we’ve had the event in Horsham, and it wouldn’t have gone for that long if it wasn’t from the support of not only our participants, but all of the local businesses, and our volunteers as well, that help us out along the way.”

Since 1998, the national Mother’s Day Classic has raised $48.23-million for the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and $2.57-million since 2024 for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation. 

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