After last night’s episode of ‘Survivor: All-Stars’ which saw Lee Carseldine leaving the show early after given the shock news that his mother Elizabeth had suffered a major stroke, he and the wider Survivor Australia gang have kicked up the Towel Challenge to raise funds and awareness for the Stroke Foundation.
In the episode that aired last night – which was filmed in late 2019 – Lee was called away from camp by a producer after losing out on a reward challenge. The first direct, immediate contact that Lee had with anyone outside of Fiji in over a month was a phone call from his sister and emergency doctors, to break the news that his mum, Beth, had suffered a major stroke and wasn’t expected to survive.
After taking a moment to deal with the shock with the rest of the newly-merged tribe, Lee exited the show to travel back to Australia immediately but unfortunately couldn’t make it home before Beth passed in the six hours after her stroke.
After the episode aired this week, Lee and fellow Survivor all-star David Genat started up the Towel Challenge, in efforts to raise awareness and important funds for the Australian Stroke Foundation, while remembering Beth’s legacy with a bit of a laugh.
The Towel Challenge comes from a cheeky joke between contestants from Champions V Contenders in 2019 when they came across an old model shot of David Genat‘s, which turned into the extended cast posing with towels very strategically placed. And yes, even Jonathon LaPaglia got onboard.
Lee, David, and the rest of the Survivor AU family are pushing to try and raise $77,000 for the Stroke Foundation, and, strangely enough, 77 was the number that Lee wore when he was playing cricket for the Queensland Bulls, and the age that Beth was when she passed.
At the time of writing, the fundraiser is sitting at around the $4400 mark, as more Survivor contestants and fans share their black and white towel pics online, nominating friends, family, and other reality stars to take up the challenge.
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