Raelene Boyle Interview (Brink Vault)

Another legend of Australian Olympics today in our 'vault' series as we bring a chat from 2013 with the legendary Raelene Boyle. Talking up her role as part of the Breast Cancer Network of Australia as well as touching on her Olympic career, it's a chat you definitely won't want to miss.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.

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BEN WATERWORTH: Welcome back to Off The Podium, An Olympics Podcast, as we open the vault once again to bring you a classic interview from our parent show, The Brink, an Olympic interview from all the Olympians and people connected to the Olympics that we spoke to. And this one's a big one, Raelene Boyle, one of Australia's greatest ever athletes and runner, I should say, that's what I'm trying to point out there, a sprinter who I guess really is known for having some pretty bad luck when it came to her results. Three-time silver medallist. She won silver in the 200 metres in both Mexico City and Munich, and then silver in the 100 metres in Munich. But I guess what really she's known for and saying that unlucky is that everybody who beat her in those games has gone on to basically be found out that they were illegal in terms of their performances. They were on drugs, and a certain amount of time had passed that sadly, she couldn't have them overturned, and she has to still take the silver. So that's, I guess, something that she's well known for in this country. But this interview, again, a little bit different. You would have heard in Stephanie Rice's interview that it necessarily wasn't about the Olympics. This one's pretty much similar as well. I spoke to Raelene for this interview in regards to a charity event that is held in this country, the Tour de Crof. An Australian rules footballer called Shane Crawford does an annual ride where he raised money for the Breast Cancer Network of Australia. And this was an interview in the lead-up to 2013 with Raelene because she's a breast cancer survivor, and she's also heavily involved in the Breast Cancer Network of Australia. So a lot of the focus of this interview is actually on that, but again, still references there, and she's an Olympian and a legendary Olympian, so we still wanted to bring this to you as well. So here is my 2013 interview with the legendary Raelene Boyle.

BEN WATERWORTH: Raelene Boyle is an Australian sporting legend that has been listed as one of Australia's 100 National Living Treasures, as well as one of Australia's 100 Greatest Sportswomen of All Time. She is a driving force in the Breast Cancer Network of Australia, as it helps raise awareness for the condition across the country, and currently the network is heavily involved in the Tour de Croiff event, as AFL legend Shane Crawford peddles his way from Melbourne to Perth. I spoke to Raelene about Shane's journey, and just how special it has been for her to be involved in the network since its inception. Raelene, welcome to the Brink and Edge Radio.

RAELENE BOYLE: Thanks, Ben.

BEN WATERWORTH: We saw a couple of years ago Shane raise over $500,000 in his run from Adelaide to Melbourne. Now, when did the plan for him to start this even longer journey first come about?

RAELENE BOYLE: Oh, look, it was earlier this year. I think the Channel 9 guys and Shane got together, and Shane said he wanted to do something else to help the Breast Cancer Network Australia. And they came up with this idea, quite a big one in my mind to ride 3,600 kilometres from Melbourne to Perth, on the ride to the other side. It's a massive, I guess, sacrifice on his part to leave his family for 22 days and put that many K's under his legs.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, absolutely. And he's obviously remained quite involved with the network over the last few years. Just how much involvement has Shane had since that run back in 2010?

RAELENE BOYLE: Well, Shane's been fantastic. He really became engaged because he met a number of women through the network and through his run, but, you know, ranged in ages and ranged in diagnoses and prognoses. And it really touched his heart. And, you know, you don't often see a commitment like this. I mean, we do see it, but Shane has no reason for the commitment outside of the women because he has no breast cancer history in his family. And there's no real connection from that point of view. What's more that he's just been out there and he's seen the impact of this disease on the community of Australia. You know, 15,000 women a year at the moment, 15,000 women this year will be told they've got breast cancer. And it's really touched him.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, yeah. It touches a lot of people, of course, along the way. I mean, how important is it for people such as Shane to hold events like this, to raise money for the network, in particular, as you said, someone who hasn't really had that family experience in history with breast cancer, and even, I suppose, a man kind of being almost a face for breast cancer in Australia.

RAELENE BOYLE: Look, it's very important. And I think it's not only the raising of the money that's significant. I think it's also the raising of the need to have yourself checked in the case of women. And certainly in the case of men, if they notice any variation in their breast lump or a bit of dimpling or secretion from the nipple, then they should be having their breast checked too. We know that the incidence is much lower. It's only just over 100 men a year. But women, there is a program for women to go and have their breast checked, and they should stick to that. But also, anyone under the age of where they can go and have their breast checked by the government outlines, they should go and have their breast checked by their doctor and in turn have mammograms or ultrasounds or whatever is needed to uncover what is causing the issues they've noticed.

BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. It's always very important to have those checks. And the funding that we were obviously speaking about along the way here with the Tour de Croft, and it's not just Tour de Croft, it's all across the year that the network obviously has fundraisers. Where does that money go to and what exactly is the money used for in helping women and men when it comes to breast cancer?

RAELENE BOYLE: Look, we have a number of things that we do. We've produced a kit called the My Journey Kit. It's been out now for quite a few years. We've updated it. It's a kit that actually is given to each woman as they're diagnosed with breast cancer. After we've produced that kit, we realised that there was actually a need for a kit that was more relative to women with secondary disease, so we've gone ahead in our processes and we've produced that. We actually do all of the sending out of the Burley kits that are sent out to women after their breast cancer, be that with or without a breast loss. We have a policy department that works constantly on new drugs coming on to the free list, but also any policy to do with breast cancer. We are there constantly working on behalf of the women to make sure that every woman on a journey, be they just being diagnosed or in the market of having a diagnosis of breast cancer, we're working with the politicians constantly to make sure their journey is better.

BEN WATERWORTH: And this is something that you can never get enough funding for it along the way. How much are you hoping to raise for the Tour de Croix for Shane continues his journey?

RAELENE BOYLE: Not as much as possible, but it would be lovely to get just over a million dollars. There's already $500,000 received via the AFL Footy Show with their corporate donations. And along the way, people are being very generous. I saw Shane at the end of last week, and there was a man in a small country town, and he had been prospecting in Kalgoorlie, and he had found two pieces of gold, one larger and one smaller. And he went up to Shane and he gave him the small pieces. He said, I haven't got any money, mate, but here's this bit of gold. And to me, that is such an excellent symbol. He said, it's worth about 200 bucks, he said, you know, it's something that you can cash in and use the money. And I just think that's such a great symbol of our society that even if we haven't got much, we still like to give and participate in events like this. And I just want to see people put their hands in their pockets and say thank you to Shane, but also make sure that the women in this country as they're diagnosed with breast cancer have a better situation to come into.

BEN WATERWORTH: Absolutely. That's a great story there. Good to hear that. You just said you saw him a few days ago. Are you remaining in contact with him every day, every couple of days along the way?

RAELENE BOYLE: I'm in contact through Breast Cancer Network and I'm going to Perth next week for when he arrives. We had a couple of days in Sojourner and waited for him there and he really looked fantastic. In fact, he's already a day ahead of his SET program, and I think he's doing that because the weather is looking a bit dicey. But the other day, he rode an extra 100 kilometres. So he's managing the ride well. He sort of had a couple of little slumps, as you do when you're doing anything like this, but he's come out of them very well and he's working hard and meeting interesting people and enjoying the task, even though it's not a task I particularly set myself.

BEN WATERWORTH: No, definitely not for the faint of heart. Given your experiences with breast cancer, Raelene, how have you found working on the board for Breast Cancer Network of Australia and obviously getting to help out women affected by the disease?

RAELENE BOYLE: I've actually been with Breast Cancer Network Australia since it formalised its board and formalised its situation. And really, the difference between when I was diagnosed 17 years ago and now is dramatic. Back then, I had no knowledge. There was no information for me. If I did go to the computer, you know, it came from other countries, the information. You didn't know what to believe. There's a lot of kooky stuff out there too. It can be very confusing. With Breast Cancer Network Australia, which I might add, it is the pink lady symbol. The information is the genuine, medically proven information that women need to have to be able to make logical and sensible decisions about their own journey.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, absolutely. And it's doing great out there, of course, around Australia. Now, still a few days to go on the Tour de Croix, as we know, finishing a day earlier, that would be great for Shane. Any ideas what's maybe in the future? I've got a suggestion maybe, Raelene. You could have a unicycle journey from Darwin to Hobart. How does that sound?

RAELENE BOYLE: I think that's a very good idea. I think that the East Coast is a wonderful place to get out and share our knowledge and our message. I think that across the southern states, we probably have better coverage. And up north, it's more difficult with the rugby influence when it comes to Shane. But I think that would be a fabulous idea, and I'd be more than happy to go on the road.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, yes. We'll hope the best for that. Of course, people can find out more information about the Breast Cancer Network of Australia by visiting bcna.org.au. You can donate on the site, and of course, if you'd like to track where Shane is, receive daily updates of that journey, you can visit Shane's website, which is www.croft.com.au, or follow the AFL Footy Show on Facebook. We'll put the links up for both those pages on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Raelene, massive pleasure having you on the show today, and all the best for the future.

RAELENE BOYLE: My pleasure, Ben. Thank you so much for participating with us.

BEN WATERWORTH: Bye We did actually go on to get Shane Crawford on the show, too. I mean, it's not Olympic related, but if you're Australian, you're a football fan, that interview exists. So I'm sure you can find that somewhere on the internet. If not, message us, you want to hear it. I'm sure we can get it to there. But Raelene Boyle, as I said, legend of the Olympics, legend of Australia. And you would have heard her say, you know, one of the greatest 100 living treasures named by Australia, the National Trust of Australia. So definitely somebody that we hold in very high regard in this country. So thank you to Raelene for giving us your time back in 2013. More of these still to come. As always, as I say, we've got plenty more to come. We've got lots and they're still coming your way. Like us on Facebook to stay up to date. You can also subscribe on iTunes, leave us feedback, rate us, everything else in between. You know the drill. And that's how you can always get these episodes without ever missing one, because we know you don't want to miss one. Right now, you're gonna miss us though, because we're hitting out the door. This is it. This is the end of the episode, and we appreciate your time. Once again, Off The Podium, we will speak to you next time.