The annual Jodie's Inspiration Golf Day was held at the Lismore Workers Golf Club yesterday in perfect late spring conditions with a record 196 players taking to the course to raise money for local cancer services.

Jesse Smith Chairman of Jodie's Inspiration told the Lismore App this was the best field since the inaugural charity golf day in 2016.

"Absolutely brilliant," Jesse said, "Everyone's had fun some fun and we've raised a fair bit of money. All 18 holes were sponsored by local businesses within a couple of days, which is pretty remarkable given where Lismore and surrounds have been over the last 18 months. So everyone's had some fun and we've raised a fair bit of money, which we're still tallying, but we're hopeful that it'll be somewhere around $12,000 to $15,000."

Jesse told the crowd at the presentation that Jodie's Inspiration has handed over about $275,000 to local hospitals in its lifetime and that amount was from activities before the COVID pandemic and last year's floods stopped most fundraising in its tracks. This is the first event since 2021.

(Bill Graham from team Instyle Sleepcentre makes a successful putt as Sharon and Dave Martin watch on)

"The money will go back into supporting local cancer services. We are committed to supporting both public and private patients who are going through a cancer journey, whether that's in the home or in hospital, and we're in negotiations with a number of different providers to hand this money over in 2024."

"Our last donation was $11,000 worth of syringe drivers which allowed palliative care nurses to keep people at home as they're palliating and comfortable and importantly, that brings comfort to their families as well. So, it may not sound a lot but those little syringe drivers work absolute wonders for the patient but also their family and we look forward to ensuring that more of those facilities are available to local people in 2024."

Jesse and his dedicated volunteer team were on the golf course at 5am setting up for the first twenty-plus teams to tee off at 7am. They were still there after the presentation was concluded at 6:30pm once the afternoon teams had completed their 18 holes.

(The dedicated Jodie's Inspiration volunteer team)

For the uninitiated, most charity days are a four-person Ambrose event. This is where every member hits the golf ball and then hits it again from the best position of the four hits. The teams of M McClelland, B Rogers, M Munro and S McNamara were the winners on the day on a count back.

There were nearest the pin prizes, raffle winners of sporting memorabilia and a $500 golf club driver but the sound of 196 players enjoying themselves on a Sunday in Lismore, whether they could play golf or not, plus the money raised for life-changing reasons made this an incredible day.

2024 is looking more conventional for Jodie's Inspiration in terms of the different events it will organise.

"There will be another golf day, that's an annual fixture. We try to have a sort of party-style event, formerly, we've run that as a pink Halloween event, but there are different ideas around that. Candy Lane at Alstonville usually runs a biannual afternoon tea or high tea which is really well attended."

"There will be other things because people have come to us and said would you be interested in being a beneficial partner in a particular event? So, there's a few things happening in the background and we'll come back to the community in early 2024 with what that calendar looks like."