James Freeman founded Shitbox Rally in 2010 after losing both of his parents to cancer within 12 months.
Shitbox Rally is not a race – it’s a challenge to achieve the unthinkable. The ‘Box Rallies’ see daring teams make journeys across Australia in cars worth less than $1,000 each for Shitbox or at least 25 years old for its partner event, Mystery Box, making their way through unchartered territory in the hope their car will survive the trip.
Participants have now raised over $20 million, all of which has supported vital cancer research.
Here are some examples of multi-state research funded by Box Rallies:
- testing new drug combinations for pancreatic cancer
- preventing people with immune deficiencies from developing lymphoma
- finding new compounds to target the deadliest type of malignant brain tumour
- developing a way to calculate the safest and most effective dose of radiation for prostate cancer patients
- analysing the largest data set of melanoma genome sequences in the world, and
- identifying a treatment to block the development and spread of neuroblastoma cells.
The 2018 Mystery Box Rally contestants, at Silverton, NSW. The event helped raise over $801,445 for cancer research and support and with your help, we can do it again!
Research Funding Model
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is the pinnacle for vital funding for ground-breaking cancer research projects, but their budget only goes so far. The cancer researchers who miss out get another chance at funding via Cancer Council grants. The impact of these projects has been felt right across Australia, with many of the grants made possible by Box Rallies funding.
Previously, Box Rallies was able to fund multi-state research projects via Cancer Council grants. In 2019, Box Rallies and Cancer Council took a new approach – one that means Box Rallies will fund the most outstanding cancer research projects nationally.
For more information on the Box Rallies, visit the website.