At 82 years of age, Melbourne grandfather Chris Tsalikis is preparing to walk from September 20-29 and raise funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
“I have always been active but for the last 18 months I have been doing a lot of walking. I walk five days a week and I do 15-16 kilometres every day,” Chris tells The Greek Herald.
“I thought I might use that for a good cause instead of just doing it for fun.”
His goal is to walk from ten of Melbourne’s major hospitals, one every day, to his home in East Brighton.
“My daughter, Ellise, went through cancer five years ago and she had a mastectomy and chemotherapy so I am also doing it for her,” Chris says explaining that his daughter is also a breast cancer survivor.
According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, breast cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia with over 20,000 people diagnosed each year.
Through this challenge, apart from raising awareness and much needed funds for cancer research the Greek Australian also hopes to motivate people to make lifestyle changes.
“Maybe I can be an inspiration to some people to make the effort and get out, take a few steps, take a big breath of some fresh air and it will do them good”.
But it looks like this is not the first time Chris Tsalikis has become a source of inspiration.
Since the day he migrated to Australia in the early 1950s from his village in Kozani, northern Greece as a 15-year-old he’s made great achievements both in his personal and professional life.
In the 1960s as an actor he participated in a film titled ‘Clay’ that made it to the Cannes Film Festival. Later on, he owned an art studio selling art pieces to galleries around Mornington Peninsula and after that he started his own restaurants where he also was the head chef.
And this is not the end.
“Dad is an amazing man and an inspiration to say the least,” says Ellise, Chris’ daughter.
“Once he retired, he loved to fish and play tennis, which he did 3-4 times a week up until the age of 80. Around five years ago he climbed to base camp of Mt Everest with my brother.
“He never ceases to amaze.”
Two days after the conclusion of his ten-day walk Chris is also organising an art exhibition in East Melbourne where he hopes to sell his art and raise funds for the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute.
“Throughout the pandemic he rediscovered his artistic side and made around twenty wooden sculptures from large pieces of wood he would find on his progressively longer, daily walks,” explains Ellise.
The family now hopes that the community will support the initiative and that no woman will have to suffer from the disease anymore.
“I am one of the lucky ones. I am now five years cancer free but my dream is that no person should ever have to go through what I did,” Ellise says.
READ MORE: Professor Helen Zorbas on growing up Greek and being a role model for young doctors
*Click here to find out more about the National Breast Cancer Foundation’s research and projects
