Soccer clubs turn yellow to kick off Albany’s Daffodil Day fundraising

The spirit of Daffodil Day will bloom across Albany next week with events set to turn the town yellow to raise funds for life-saving cancer research.

People across Australia dig deep for the Cancer Council on August 27 to support the one in two Australians who will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.

The Great Southern Soccer Association will kick off fundraising with its annual Daffodil Round played across women’s and men’s fixtures on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.

Players and spectators will don yellow to promote the cause, with clubs collecting donations at each game.

Albany organiser Bethany Westerberg will hit the pavement on York Street next Friday for her annual Daffodil Day Street appeal from 9.30am to 3.30pm selling fresh flowers.

For the past five years, she has been honouring the legacy of her grandmother Norma Freebury, who devoted more than 25 years to Cancer Council fundraising.

When she lost her mother to cancer in 2017, Ms Westerberg decided it was time to create her own fundraising footprint to support fellow families touched by cancer.

“Coming up to Daffodil Day is always hard because it makes me remember my mum and then my nanna,” she said,

“But it is such a good cause to put money towards to try to get rid of cancer because it is a horrible disease and it affects so many people.

“It’s really nice to feel like I am honouring my nanna and helping her legacy to keep going and I think my mum and my nanna would be proud.”

Ms Westerberg has been beating her fundraising goal every year, raising more than $6000 last year.

She aims to raise $8000 this year.

A Daffodil Day morning swim-through will be held at Middleton Beach at 6.30am on Friday followed by a midday swim-through at the Albany Waterfront Marina.

Haz Beanz will donate a free coffee to every swimmer, with 50¢ from every coffee sold on the day donated to the Cancer Council.