Chloe, Sophie and Stuart Locke honour mum and wife, Sarah, at the annual Seymour Football Netball Club’s Sarah’s Day.
Photo by
Wayne Herring
Four years on, Sarah Locke’s spirit is kept alive by Seymour, which each year rallies around a cause close to her heart.
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Annually, the Seymour Football Netball Club’s Sarah’s Day honours Ms Locke and the profound impact she made on the town, while also raising funds for vital breast cancer research.
Ms Locke passed away from breast cancer in 2022 and it is her own celebratory character and drive to support the cause, passed down to daughters Chloe and Sophie, that keeps the day thriving.
“Each year, her and her girlfriends went to a breast cancer fundraiser in Rutherglen, which raised funds for the breast cancer centre in Albury, and one year, because of COVID, they weren’t able to go,” Sophie said.
“So, they hosted their own one here in Seymour and rode their bikes around town with coin tins to raise money.
“She and her girlfriends would just go above and beyond to raise funds for it.
“It wasn’t just her, she has two very close girlfriends, who are also in Seymour, that have gone through breast cancer, so it’s very close to her heart.”
On Saturday, May 2, following the netball and reserves football games at the Seymour Football Netball Club, the Sarah’s Day proceedings began with the annual high tea and went well into the night with an iPod Shuffle party.
While the celebration and honouring of Sarah’s memory is a core part of the day, multiple fundraisers saw more than $15,000 donated to the Breast Cancer Network of Australia.
Sophie Locke said guest speaker Jess Pearce spread awareness about young breast cancer diagnoses.
Photo by
Wayne Herring
Sophie said it was also about raising awareness of the illness, with guest speaker Jess Pearce, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in her early 30s, sharing her own story with the crowd of women and girls.
“Everyone really enjoyed her story. The previous three years, it’s been myself talking, so I wanted to get someone else talking every year,” Sophie said.
“A lot of the women in the room were from the netball teams and it was about letting them know that it doesn’t matter how old you are, breast cancer doesn’t discriminate.”
While there’s a long list of people who make the event a success each year, Sophie wanted to thank the Seymour and Tatura football netball clubs and the wider Seymour community as a whole.
She said Sarah would be delighted to know the celebration was still taking place, year after year, in her honour.
“Mum was always a person who liked to host everyone and she was everyone’s go-to — always the first to arrive to a party and always the last to leave,” Sophie said.
“I think she’d be jealous she’s missing out on this big celebration in honour of her and I think she would absolutely love it.
“I think she’d be absolutely proud of us, my sister and I, and of the club, and just our village — our community who have chipped in. She’d be over the moon with it.”
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