Family Cancer Battle Inspires Navy Sailor To Chase Karting Glory

25 March 2010

A cancer battle and the love of his family have inspired a Melbourne-based Royal Australian Navy sailor to embark on a fundraising quest at the National Sprint Kart Championships in Puckapunyal, Victoria next weekend (April 2-4).

Last Christmas, Brendon Andersen was told his mother had breast cancer.

“When we got told about Mum it hit us pretty hard," said Andersen.

Brendon Andersen will be flying the flag for the McGrath Foundation
at next weekend's National Sprint Kart Championshipst

Not one to allow the news to get him down the 29 year-old and his family decided to fight back, by working towards a cure and using his hobby of kart racing to help raise money for the McGrath Foundation.

As a part of his campaign Andersen has turned just about everything in his artillery to the colour of pink as he flies the flag for the McGrath Foundation and is looking for the support of the karting community across the weekend.

“Everything is going pink this week for us, the kart and the team, so now all we need is for everyone to get behind us and support such an amazing foundation,” said Andersen.

Andersen is a Leading Seaman based at RAN Recruit School HMAS Cerberus near Melbourne. The school’s executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Mathew Ferguson says the school is well and truly behind Andersen’s campaign.

“We like to think of ourselves as belonging to a Navy Family,” said Lieutenant Commander Ferguson.

“Brendon and his family have gone through a tough time and they deserve our support.”

Andersen, who has been racing karts for three years now, moved to Bittern on the Mornington Peninsula from Perth at the beginning of the year after returning from a six-month deployment on the HMAS Warranunga last year.

After keeping a track of last year’s National Championships, held in North Queensland, via the internet while he was abroad Andersen can’t wait to get take to the track in Puckapunyal next weekend.

“To say that I’m excited about next weekend is a real understatement,” said Andersen.

“I’m been looking forward to this weekend and racing at my first National Championships for a while now but when you add in the fact that I’m also now racing for the a good cause it makes the event even more exciting.”

Creating further excitement in the Andersen household is the fact that his partner Amy was due to give birth to the couple’s first child last Wednesday.

“Amy was due last Wednesday but at this stage we’re still waiting but she is very supportive of my goal of racing at next week’s championships,” said Andersen.

“Amy doesn’t want to miss the event, so we’ve got both sets of grandparents coming to the track to help us out with looking after junior as well. It’s going to be an extremely busy week, but one we are all looking forward to.”

The National Sprint Kart Championships is the most prestigious single event on the Australian Karting calendar with over 350 entries being received across the ten categories being contested for the three-day event.

Competitors and teams will begin arriving in the Goulburn Valley region this weekend to start practice for the championships on Monday March 29. Qualifying will be contested on Friday April 2 followed by heat races on Saturday April 3 and the championship finals on Sunday April 4.

The Hume International Raceway is located on the Tooborac Road, Puckapunyal