Raising money and positivity drives Liz

LIZ Duthie has spent her life giving back, from Relay for Life’s to Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea’s.

It started 20 years ago, with a focus the last 14 years on Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea’s – that grew into lunches.

“I lost my brother-in-law at 39 with a brain tumour,” Liz said.

“I think over the years I always wanted to do something to help raise more money.”

Moving to Bass Coast from Blackburn seven years ago, the Inverloch resident has hosted an event five years out of the seven.

“I’ve always been a part of groups that raise money – mostly for cancer. Fourteen years ago, I decided to do something myself.

“In Blackburn I belonged to a craft group there, and they always did a big morning tea and that’s where it really started.

“I love raising money and I love the positivity of the people. I can go into different shops, for example, Redgie’s Café, they always give sandwiches and Little Wren, she gave me a voucher.

“I do two hampers and because I started off with morning tea, I always do a teapot.”

Collecting teapots in her travels, Liz recalls a rather special year when she found both a cow and a cat teapot.

“I fell in love with a cat, and I knew two people coming to my big morning tea. One was a farmer, and she brought a lady with her, who just loved the cat… She said to her friend, ‘I think I like that’ and bid on it.

“Everything’s donated. The whole thing is knowing that very few people will say no, you get a couple who for different reasons are unable to, which is fine. Everybody loves it.”

Until this year, Liz’s teas and lunches have also been free to enter.

“I know if you’re going to spend $20, then that’s what you’re going to spend.

“This year was a first year that I charged, and I decided $10 was fine.”

Hosted at the bowling club for the second year, an announcement the week prior during a fortnightly dinner saw members from Bass Coast Health Auxiliary jump on board with monies raised going towards new cancer equipment at Wonthaggi Hospital.

Upon entering the Inverloch Bowling Club, Liz was greeted by a member of the auxiliary who was collecting monies.

“I’m doing all my stuff picking up food and I said to my husband, you’ll be there before me but I should be there about 12, for 12.30 start, and when I got there one of the ladies from that auxiliary was sitting taking the $10 from each person.

“I’d never asked, and she says this is what we do.

“I’d seen there were a lot of cars in the carpark, knew there were quite a lot of people there, and she said, ‘I’ve just counted the money so far and we’ve taken $570’.”

Fifty-seven people had turned up in support of Liz’s Biggest Lunch and with the assistance of the auxiliary they raised $3100 on the day.

With ideas circulating around what Liz will plan next year, she is not giving any secrets away just yet.

“I do like doing it in my house.

“Usually, I’m not allowed in the kitchen the last two years my husband has cooked the soups – we had four soups this year.

“He loves pumpkin, so we had a pumpkin and carrot, pumpkin and sweet potato, leek and potato and then I said we’ll do a Scotch broth because that’s one of our favourites.

“In Melbourne he had a good veggie garden, and he would make a lot of soups.”

Mixing it up at her lunch in 2019, Liz even shaved her head for the cause.

“It was quite special. My husband’s a barber, but he didn’t want to do it, so I said to our son Andrew do you want to do it because your dad won’t do it?”

Throughout winter, Liz could be seen in a collection of different beanies, her favourite a multicoloured one.

And whilst Liz hasn’t kept track of how much she has raised over the 14 years – there is no denying her fundraising efforts have certainly made an impact both at the Cancer Council Victoria and Wonthaggi Hospital.