For Rylee Haigh, each of the 80 kilometres he recently ran symbolised one life lost to the same cancer that took his own mum.
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It all began for the local police officer’s mum, Lisa, with a pimple on her vulva — something she initially joked about with a friend.
Just over a month later, after the pimple had grown into a cyst, Lisa received her diagnosis.
“If you see anything abnormal, anything in general that you think is a bit abnormal, it’s best to get it checked out,” Rylee said.
“If it does look like just a pimple, it could be something worse.”
Lisa’s battle with vulvar cancer lasted more than a year.
Despite ringing the bell, which symbolises the end of treatment, in September 2024, the cancer returned in February last year.
On the Australian Gynaecological Cancer Foundation’s website, Rylee wrote that during the last birthday he celebrated with his mum, her 60th, she appeared “seemingly unbothered by what was going on”.
“No-one would have known anything was wrong,” he wrote.
“Mum was always so strong and masked the pain as to not alarm anyone.
“I guess that’s just what Mum always did, always putting everyone else before herself.
“That’s what many mothers do, but my mum always went above and beyond.”
On September 23, 2025, Lisa passed away with her husband by her side.
More than six months on, Rylee decided to turn his grief into strides.
“I’ve been running for 12 months. It was probably halfway through Mum’s battle with cancer when I started doing it,” he said.
“I did my first half-marathon just after Mum got admitted to hospital in August.
“Mum was proud that I started getting into it because I was not exactly the fittest kid and I’ve kind of turned that around a bit.”
To raise awareness about lesser known women’s illnesses, like vulvar cancer, he set out to run 115km — one kilometre for every woman who lost their life to the cancer last year.
On Saturday, April 4, Rylee made it to 80km, far exceeding his previous longest run of 26km.
“I was trying to channel the grief into something productive,” he said.
“Doing something odd like that, I suppose, raised a heap of awareness.
“The amount of people that messaged me — friends, and even Mum’s school friends that reached out to Dad and I — I guess it’s grabbing when they see 115km of running.”
Not only did Rylee’s run for his mum draw attention to vulvar cancer, it also resulted in a significant amount of funds raised for the Australian Gynaecological Cancer Foundation, an amount which well surpassed his initial goal.
“When I started the fundraiser, I just had it set at $1000. I put $200 in and started sharing it around and got my family to share it,” Rylee said.
“Then, I woke up the next day and it was at, like, $1200, and GoFundMe automatically sets the goal based on how much you’re making.
“It went up to $3000 as the next goal and I was like, ‘there’s no way that’s going to happen’. And then we ended up at $8000 a week after that.”
Rylee was able to amass a total of $8250, thanks to the local community, his friends and family.
He said Hot Cave Pilates in Seymour also contributed $500, with the money it made from classes on Good Friday going straight to the cause.
Although the fundraiser was a significant part of his run, Rylee said he ultimately wanted to eliminate the taboo around illnesses such as this one.
“Mum was embarrassed about it at the start. For anyone that has these issues in the future, it is nothing to be embarrassed about,” he said.
He added that, through every 20km lap, his mum was with him for the entire journey.
“We did 20km loops and then we came back home and refuelled. We had a couple of Mum’s friends and some family down and the whole time we were joking, saying, ‘she’s going to say you’re stupid for doing something like this’,” Rylee said.
“She was always super jovial, but very sarcastic, and super loving.
“She put everyone before herself all the time. Even towards the end of her battle when she could barely even sit down or walk around, she was still running around the house trying to get things ready for everyone, still making lunch for Dad when he was going to work at midnight.
“She was a trooper.”