Annie Crawford: Making a difference beyond comfort zones

The colour orange now pulses through the veins of the thousands Annie Crawford has coached through her foundation Can Too.

Annie Crawford, founder of the Can Too Foundation.

The colour orange now pulses through the veins of the thousands of individuals Annie Crawford has coached through her foundation Can Too, an independent health promotion charity committed to funding cancer research.

After losing her father to bowel cancer when he was only 51, Ms Crawford knew she wanted to make a difference by combining her background as a social worker and her passion for running and fitness.

“I’ve always had a strong sense of social justice and I’ve always wanted to make a difference in some way,” Ms Crawford said.

“Being a social worker and wanting to make a difference, paired with my passion for fitness and health and with my dad’s early death, the idea of setting up Can Too in 2005 became a quick reality.”

The Australian’s Australian of the Year nominee has helped to raise over $22m to support the prevention, treatment and control of cancer.

“What I really wanted Can Too to be about was the interplay between promoting health and wellbeing and cancer research and funding,” Ms Crawford said.

“It’s about getting people to move beyond their comfort zone, face their fears, and to do things they never imagined they could do and the vehicle for that relies on their fitness and health. This concept, matched with fundraising, plays together beautifully.”

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Since 2005 Can Too has trained more than 16,000 people around the country to take part in a multi-million-dollar battle against cancer by participating in athletic events and achieving goals they never dreamt of achieving.

Training programs for physical challenges including marathons, triathlons, ocean swims and hikes.

They are available to anybody but in return they have to raise money for Australian cancer research to support the country’s early-career cancer researchers.

“I always had a really strong idea about what I wanted to create and what I wanted the culture of the organisation to be, and luckily people liked that and saw what it could provide for people,” Ms Crawford said.

“Seeing what we’ve done to help so many people really makes me want to pinch myself. I’m in awe actually. We’ve been able to create a community that has its own essence and heart. There are so many people who can take ownership of the positive difference we’ve made to so many people’s lives.”

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