FAQs

The BRIGHT Walk is an epic one-night challenge raising funds to help SAHMRI cure disease and save lives.

Facing mental and physical health disorders, both personally or as a loved one of someone who is, can be a dark road. Health and medical research give us hope. The BRIGHT Walk is a metaphor for this challenging journey, marching a long road at night through the middle of winter, side by side with a united community.

On 6 July, this year’s 11km route will take walkers past dozens of dazzling displays in the Illuminate Adelaide festival, plus exclusive experiences lighting up the darkness with life and colour.

The money raised goes to SAHMRI’s researchers, pushing towards life-saving discoveries, bringing us all closer to a brighter, healthier future.

SAHMRI is South Australia’s independent, not-for-profit health and medical research institute, turning discoveries in health and medical research into impact for the community to improve their lives and the health of all Australians. Its headquarters are in the heart of Adelaide BioMed City, the largest health and medical research precinct in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s home to around 700 researchers, partners, students and support staff.

The BRIGHT Walk is on Saturday, 6 July 2023, at 4pm, starting at the Riverbank Lawns in front of the Convention Centre.

There are a number of simple ways to get involved:

Join us today!
Join a team of your mates or colleagues
Find a friend to sponsor or donate to support life-saving research at SAHMRI

The typical registration cost is $75. This covers the cost of staging the walk including the lights, making the event safe and your rewards. There are discounts on offer in the lead-up to the walk. On the day it costs $100.

All donations over $2 are tax-deductible. However, ticket prices for registration are not.

The walk route is 11km through the streets of Adelaide and North Adelaide, past stunning light installations and exclusive BRIGHT Walk experiences.

The route map will shortly be available online for downloading.

The course will be marked with arrows and will be easy to follow. Please do not move away from the indicated path.

The walk starts at 4pm and will take you between 3 and 4 hours to complete depending on your fitness level, pace and how often you stop to look at the pretty lights.

Yes strollers are allowed, so you can bring your whole family! Just be aware that the path will be crowded in some areas so please be aware of the people around you.

For safety’s sake, we do not allow bicycles, inline skates, wheelie footwear, skateboards or scooters. It’s busy, and at night, so we need to take care

Yes the route has no stairs and is wide enough for wheelchairs. However there are a few challenges you should be aware of:

Ramps up to Adelaide Uni Footbridge and to cross Frome Rd
Hill climb after Women’s Children Hospital
We will be walking past tables and chairs on the footpath on O’Connell St and Waymouth St.

Call us if you would like more information.

Yes! As long as they are friendly and kept on-lead at all times, feel free to bring your dog along for a BRIGHT Walk.

Please bring your own water bottle; we will provide free water at the start and along the route.

Some food and drinks will be available for purchase at the start lines, as well as key stops along the route. Make sure to save some space for a free finish line snag at SAHMRI.

The walk is held rain or shine – that’s part of the BRIGHT Walk Challenge!

However, if the weather makes the event dangerous, we will cancel or cut the event short. We will not cancel in advance based on the forecast but decide on the day itself.

Yes. If you can’t attend our official event in Adelaide City on 6 July, we encourage you to hold your own casual BRIGHT Walks wherever suits you best. It could be around your neighbourhood, with some friends at a local park, or even on a treadmill in the comfort of your home.

Walk 11.4km on the day or in the week leading up to 6 July.

Register anyway, then email us to let us know you’re doing your own thing (fundraising@sahmri.com). Your remote participation will still shine BRIGHT, and your fundraising dollars will help save lives through research.

Tickets to the event are non-refundable. However, we can convert your entry fee into a donation and provide a tax-deductible receipt if you can no longer participate.

We’re encouraging everyone to raise at least $500.

You can raise $500 in five days – by sponsoring yourself, asking your friends, posting updates on social media, sharing your goal with your workmates and keeping all your mates updated with your training. They will want to support you. Our website has plenty of fundraising tips, and the team will call and email you with advice on reaching your goal.

There is no required minimum fundraising goal, but we hope you’ll want to shoot for the stars!

The money raised from the BRIGHT Walk will push SAHMRI researchers another step closer to the next life-changing discovery with the potential to cure disease and ultimately save lives.

Every dollar you raise helps us develop pilot projects and leverage support from national funding bodies.

The funds also boost early and mid-career researchers like BRIGHT Ambassador A/Prof Christina Bursill. Working with her team, she hopes to discover new agents that prevent the fatty blockages that cause heart attacks.

Please tell your sponsors they are supporting the BRIGHTest research minds in the state – who need our help to heal, treat and cure the people we love.

No. The first person to join can create a team and share their chosen team name with the rest of the members. When you search for the team, you can ‘join’ when you’re ready.

Absolutely! You can create or join a team when you register, and we’ll provide you with access to both your own BRIGHT Walk fundraising page and your team’s BRIGHT Walk page too. Your friends and family can donate to you personally or the team as a whole. Donations to your personal page will be shown on both your total and as part of your team’s total.

We offer money-can’t-buy prizes for reaching each fundraising milestone. You can collect your rewards at SAHMRI on North Terrace the week before the event, at the event village (Adelaide Riverbank Lawns) from 2pm on the event day, or if those don’t work for you, email us and we will mail you your rewards!

We are not offering medals this year to ensure our event costs are covered mainly by your registration fees, meaning that all funds raised will go into supporting research.

The prizes are awarded to individuals – so if you’re in a team, make sure people sponsor you, not the whole team if you want to win prizes. Each team member’s fundraising counts towards the team’s total.

No – anyone can take part in the BRIGHT Walk, but if you’re under 18 on 6 July, you’ll need your parent’s or guardian’s permission to take part.

Your BRIGHT Walk fundraising hub connects to Strava to track your training.

If you have a Strava account, you can connect it to your BRIGHT Walk fundraising hub once you’ve registered. Many tracking devices connect to Strava, although you must create a Strava account. You can also use your personal fitness device to track your activity.

Setting up Strava to track the activity you complete for the BRIGHT Walk should be straightforward:

Set up a Strava account if you don’t already have one. You can do that by downloading the Strava app to your phone and then creating your account, or you can create an account at https://strava.com
Find the Connect to Strava button on the BRIGHT Walk fundraising hub – you’ll have access to that once you’ve signed up
Click on the button and follow the instructions to connect to your Strava account
To get the best results, we recommend that you then log into your Strava account from a desktop computer at https://strava.com (rather than your mobile) and check/configure the following:
- Check that your Strava app is connected to Raisely (the BRIGHT Walk fundraising platform) by navigating to Settings > My Apps. You should see the Raisely application listed as one of the apps that have been given permission to access your Strava data
- In Settings > Display Preferences, make sure your Units & Measurements are set to ‘Kilometers and Kilograms.’
- In Settings > Privacy Controls, set your Activities data to be viewable by ‘Everyone.’
Before recording an activity on your Strava app for BRIGHT Walk, make sure the activity type is set to walking

You should now be ready for data to pass from your Strava application to your BRIGHT Walk fundraising hub. Note that once you’ve recorded activity on Strava, the data may take a few minutes to come through.

If you run into any issues, check out https://support.strava.com/ to see if you can find some relevant guidance there. If you still have problems, please get in touch with us at info@sahmribright.org.au, and we’ll do what we can to help

Yes, we recommend that you do some training for your challenge. How much will depend on your level of fitness. We’ve put together a training plan in the Resources section of your BRIGHT Walk hub.

Don’t worry – we’ve got your back! The route is supported by marshalls, first aid stations, and sweep vehicles to boost you along the course or back to the event village. Rumour has it there are a couple of shortcuts, too. So ask us, and we’ll let you in on the secret. No matter how far you walked, we’ll celebrate your achievement and support.

Absolutely! We encourage you to take it at your own pace so people of all abilities and fitness levels can take part. Although you may miss out on some BRIGHT lights or giveaways so we do recommend you stay with your group for the full experience.

Only things you can carry. We are not providing cloakroom services.

What to wear

Comfortable pants/leggings
Tops that you can layer and keep you warm but are easy to take off once you start working up a sweat!
Thick, comfortable socks (make sure you wear your BRIGHT Walk socks!)
Well-fitting walking shoes or trainers (not brand new; no blisters here!)
Lightweight waterproof jacket (depending on weather forecast)

What to bring

Your drink bottle is a must for topping up with free water along the walk – hit your fundraising milestones and get your BRIGHT Walk bag and drink bottle.
Energy-giving snacks (protein balls/muesli bars/trail mix etc.)
Spare socks
Basic first aid kit (paracetamol, band-aids, antiseptic cream, blister plasters etc.)

Your safety is very important to us. Marshals and volunteers will be along the course looking after you. Please follow their instructions at all times.

First aid will be available at the start/finish village. Contact the nearest volunteer or drink stop if you need help on the walk, and we’ll come to you.

Every walker gets their own web page for raising money. We’ll send you emails and a kit with a unique link to your page – so friends, family and workmates can find it easily. They can also visit the BRIGHT Walk website and search for your name.

Then click the Sponsor button and use a credit card to donate.

This is a key ring. Ask your friends to scan your BRIGHT Walk QR code keyring and they’ll get straight to your page ready to donate.

Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered! We know how important it is to show your gratitude, so we automatically send a thank you email to your donor as soon as they donate.

It’s also a good idea to include thank you notes to your donors (and remember to tag them) in your social posts when asking for more donations! People really appreciate being thanked publicly for their kind support.

We recommend you pay the cash into your own bank account first. Then use your own credit card to donate at your BRIGHT Walk online fundraising page on behalf of your generous donor. You can even forward the receipt to them afterwards.

First of all, THANK YOU for your donation! Without your support, we can’t make life-saving breakthroughs. If you have not received your receipt, please get in touch with us at info@sahmribright.org.au.

It’s common for supporters to accidentally donate to SAHMRI, the broad BRIGHT Walk campaign or a team instead of a specific walker.

If your donor has made a mistake – ask them to email or call us, and we can move it. We must speak to the donor rather than the walker to move donations.

Donations are tax-deductible gifts. For this reason, we do not offer refunds for donations.

We always recommend you consult your doctor or health care practitioner beforehand. If they need more information about the event to give you the correct advice, they are welcome to contact us at info@sahmribright.org.au so they can fully understand the level of physical exertion involved.

Once you register, you can download an Authority to Fundraise for SAHMRI from the Resources section of your BRIGHT Walk fundraising hub.

You’ll have a dedicated personal coach soon after you join us. They’ll answer your questions, give advice, and share fundraising and training resources. Our coaches also have training and fundraising experience (having completed similar events before), so feel free to contact them for more advice too: info@sahmribright.org.au

THE BRIGHT WALK EVENT

DONATIONS

YOUR HEALTH AND WELLBEING MATTER TO US

SUPPORT/RESOURCES