IF YOU find yourself held up on a country road next month by a small tractor of unusual hue chugging along at 30 kilometres an hour, don’t blow a fuse: it’s all for a good cause.
The Massey Ferguson 5435 tractor in question will be painted bright pink, and so should require no explanation – unless you’ve been living under a rock since 2005 – as to what the “good cause” might be.
Pink is the well-known colour scheme of the McGrath Foundation, the organisation set up 10 years ago by former Test cricket legend Glenn McGrath and his late wife, Jane, to promote awareness of breast cancer.
It’s a cause that has long resonated with Mudgee real estate agent Hugh Bateman, principal of The Property Shop, who has seen the disease afflict numbers of his clients through the years, some with fatal results.
Now, Hugh has decided to do something about it, and for three weeks starting on October 9, he will be undertaking a 2600 kilometre Tractor Trek for Breast Cancer Care across a big sweep of NSW.
He bought a second-hand Massey Ferguson tractor at a Sydney auction, had it painted pink, and on October 9 he will set out from Mudgee bound for Dubbo on the first leg of his philanthropic pilgrimage.
His aim is to raise $250,000 for the McGrath Foundation, which he hopes to achieve by direct sponsorships and through co-operation along the way with fellow agent members of the Real Estate Results Network, who will be organising events in their local towns to coincide with his visit.
After Dubbo, Hugh plans to travel to Orange, then south-westwards to Griffith, back to the coast at Wollongong and thence north to Sydney, Port Stephens, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour, before returning home via Muswellbrook.
While in Sydney, Hugh will visit Parliament House, the Real Estate Institute of NSW and the McGrath Foundation headquarters.
He said the itinerary had been planned to take in a wide sweep of the State, reflecting the geographically “indiscriminate” nature of breast cancer and the enormity of the task facing the McGrath Foundation.
“Breast cancer in Australia continues to claim victims at an alarming rate,” said Hugh.
“Already this year there has been 15,000 new cases diagnosed – including 150 men – and the foundation has just 105 breast care nurses across Australia to administer help.
“It costs more than $13 million a year to fund these nurses, and to mark the 10th anniversary of the foundation, the aim this year is to lift the number of nurses to 110.
“It’s not just the help in the home and practical assistance the nurses render that is so valuable to breast cancer sufferers, but the psychological lift they provide.
“If my tractor trek can help raise awareness and put more breast cancer nurses on the ground, I’ll consider it time well spent.”
Hugh is only too well aware the time spent on the tractor will take him out of his office during a peak period of the spring property selling season, but he isn’t concerned.
“We’ve got six people in the office now on sales, so I’m confident that others will keep the business ticking over while I’m on the road.”
Although he spends his weekdays now in collar and tie as a busy real estate executive, Hugh is no stranger to the tractor seat, having grown up on a local farm and driven his first tractor at the age of six.
He also has his own a small property near Mudgee (formerly part of “Kaludabah”) where he knocks about at weekends, so farm machinery doesn’t faze him – although tedium might, after the marathon Griffith to Wollongong leg.
Hugh has set up a website on which people will be able to follow the progress of his trip, and lodge donations.
Peter Austin
Former editor and long time columnist and property writer for The Land.
Former editor and long time columnist and property writer for The Land.
