29 YEARS, 1.8 MILLION PARTICIPANTS, $50.8 MILLION DONATED TO BREAST AND OVARIAN CANCER RESEARCH
Organisers of the 2026 Mother’s Day Classic (MDC) are encouraging Australians to mark their calendars now for Sunday, May 10, as the iconic event celebrates its 29th year of community action for breast and ovarian cancer research.
From humble beginnings in 1998 with 3,000 participants in Melbourne and Sydney raising $50,000, the Mother’s Day Classic, founded by Women in Super, has become one of the most successful and important fixtures on the fundraising calendar, with up to 100,000 participants expected to walk and run at more than 90 locations nationwide this year.
And for the first time, the Mother’s Day Classic in Melbourne will host a half-marathon event across a picturesque 21.1km course starting at Alexandra Gardens.
In a sign of further growth and awareness, local event bookings in regional and suburban areas nationally for Mother’s Day Classic are up 20 per cent, indicating even stronger community support for 2026.
“We’re thrilled to see so many communities taking the lead and hosting their own Mother’s Day Classic events. It shows that Australians don’t just want to attend, they want to be part of something bigger. They want to turn Mother’s Day into a moment of purpose, standing stronger together in support of those impacted by breast and ovarian cancer.”
Zara Lawless, CEO of the Mother's Day Classic, said.“Since our inception, more than 1.8 million Australians have started their Mother’s Day with purpose, and together we have donated $50.8 million to fund research and improve outcomes so far -a legacy of hope that one generation passes to the next. As we look to 2026, our focus is simple: bring more people together, fund more groundbreaking research and move closer to a future where no family loses a loved one to breast or ovarian cancer.”
The impact of that investment is clear. Since the Mother’s Day Classic began, the five-year survival rate for breast cancer has improved from 84 per cent to 93 per cent, thanks in large part to research funding from events like the MDC.
However, the work is far from done. Every day in Australia, 61 women are diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancer, and 12 die from these diseases.
In 2024, the Mother’s Day Classic expanded its mission to support ovarian cancer research alongside breast cancer research raising an incredible $3.3 million, recognising the urgent need for progress in a disease where the five-year survival rate remains at just 49 per cent and treatment options have seen little improvement over the last three decades.
“The MDC community enthusiastically embraced our extended purpose,” Ms Lawless said. “In 2025, we donated a $3.5 million split between the National Breast Cancer Foundation and the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, and we’re determined to exceed that in 2026.”
With registrations now open and early-bird pricing available, there’s never been a better time to sign up and make a difference on Mother’s Day 2026.
