The 10th Ride for Lily pedalled into Wangaratta on Wednesday, 15 April on their seven-day fundraising ride from Canberra to Melbourne.

Arriving at Apex Park from Beechworth at about 10.45am, Live for Lily founder Aaron Hester told the Wangaratta Chronicle that despite the first three days being incredibly taxing, the team of 30 cyclists were happy to have smashed the halfway mark and were feeling optimistic about the final stretch ahead.

"We found this funny little phenomenon where from day one to four, you continually get tired, but five, six and seven, your body starts to get accustomed to what you're doing," he said.

“I reckon though this would be one of our hardest starts to a ride.

“In the first three days, we had something like 7500 metres of climbing.

“That session we just did from Beechworth to here in about 50 minutes."

Aaron founded Live for Lily in 2014 to honour his daughter Lily, who passed away the year prior from an extremely rare form of liver cancer.

Since then, he has fought hard to help find a cure for childhood cancer, raising $2.5 million to date to fund research at the Children’s Cancer Institute and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

As of Thursday, 16 April, they’ve raised a little over $212,000 of their $300,000 goal from this year's ride.

“We’re proud in that we’ve approached the $2.5 million mark since we first started [the ride] 10 years ago,” Aaron said.

“From a 2026 ride capacity, I’m very proud of $200,000, and it comes from people getting behind us and having trust and belief in what we’re trying to do.

“The beauty of the Live for Lily Foundation is even among us all, all riders have paid for their own accommodation, their own food.

“So, 100 per cent of donations go towards research.”

Aaron also pointed out several cyclists don a double band on their uniform, indicating they've participated in at least five rides.

“When you think about that whole concept… it’s a big effort, and I fully appreciate every person and every support person,” Aaron said.

Aside from the monetary value of donations, Aaron said reading the little messages people leave with their donation is heart-warming and a source of motivation.

“There’s the financial side of it, which is fundamentally how we try and fund the research,” he said.

“And then from an emotional side, just [seeing] people spread the word of the foundation and what we’re trying to do, and the messages of encouragement.”

In terms of the ride itself, Aaron said all the riders ate “so much” to maintain stamina.

“We call this our first aid kit,” he said, holding up his can of full-sugar Coke.

“I’d say the best way to compare it would be to a kid’s party, every day with lollies.

“The local community have [also] got behind us beautifully, a lot of the businesses will heavily discount their products.”

Without a hitch, the cyclists will arrive at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday, 17 April.

Read more about the Live for Lily foundation or make a donation by visiting liveforlily.org.au/.