Life Pharmacy Group's CEO, and Chief Operating Officer, have hit the road and 'gone bush' for the annual Beyond Bitumen Rally, raising funds and awareness for Beyond Blue.
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In their sixth consecutive year of the rally, Michael Flannery, Warwick Marx and their fellow teammates raised more than $46,000 for Beyond Blue, which provides free mental health support for more than 300,000 people each year.
"I went to the Beyond Bitumen presentation dinner in my hometown of Forbes seven years ago. A mate of mine who did the rally got up on stage, initially as a joke to sing a Kenny Rogers song but halfway through he broke down and started sharing his story about how he struggled with mental illness being a remote farmer," Life Pharmacy Group CEO, Michael Flannery, said.
"He talked that night about the importance of Beyond Blue, especially for people like him who are on a farm, and I thought - isn't it an amazing thing, you can have a mate like that slip under your radar and not realise it."
The following year, Michael and Warwick purchased a vehicle for the rally and The Cavaliers rally team was born.
Over the years The Cavaliers has included more than 20 varied teammates.
"I thought the idea of sitting in a car, with a group of blokes, talking about bloke stuff, that they probably wouldn't stand around and talk about normally, would be good for everyone," Michael said.
"A lot of us are country boys so we grew up in the bush, we don't live there anymore, and it's a really good opportunity to get back, get dusty and dirty, drive around backroads and have a bit of a laugh while raising money for charity. It is also nice we can contribute to the small villages we drop into which I think is really important for their communities."
More than half a million dollars was raised during the Beyond Bitumen Rally 2024 and The Cavaliers fundraising efforts were the highest amount of funds by any team in this year's rally.
"We received great support from our industry peers, with our major sponsors being Life Pharmacy Group, Chemists Own out of the DBG Health Group, and the Independent Pharmacy of Australia (IPA) Group and the support of these organisations was key to us reaching our target," Michael said.
"This is our sixth year, and in that time, we've raised over $170,000 for Beyond Blue. This is something we're very proud to be involved with and we really appreciate the support we've received from our colleagues, friends, and families."
The Beyond Bitumen Rally entourage of more than 100 vehicles travelled almost 2000 kilometres earlier this month, across parts of southwest New South Wales and Northern Victoria.
