It's 17 years since one bloke's diagnosis turned into what's now the largest community-driven prostate cancer fundraiser in the country, and today's crowd of Goulburn Valley men is here to keep that legacy going strong.
The story starts back in 2009, when Chris McPherson, who led McPherson Media Group, publisher of this masthead, was told he had incurable prostate cancer.
Rather than stay quiet about it, as too many men do, Chris gathered a room full of blokes over lunch and put the hard question to them plainly: when did you last get checked?
He died from the disease in December 2015, the same year he was named Volunteer of the Year at the National Awards for Excellence in Fundraising for what he had started.
More than a decade on, that first Shepparton lunch has been replicated in towns and cities right across Australia, together raising millions of dollars for prostate and bowel cancer research and support.
Locally, the money keeps specialist prostate and bowel cancer nurses on staff at Goulburn Valley Health, guiding men and their families through diagnosis and treatment, a service that simply wouldn't exist without everyone who's bought a ticket, donated an auction item or backed a table over the years.
Run entirely by a volunteer committee, the lunch has broken its own records almost every year it's been held.
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