The COVID-19 pandemic has also managed to bring others to a complete halt.

The Ovens and Murray Football League season, for one, didn't even get under way, a situation that's been repeated right across our regional community.

But, as said, there have been other events of such importance to our area that innovative ways have been developed to ensure these maintain an important presence.

A clear example was the Winter Solstice, normally held in the dead of a winter's night in June in QEII Square.

Instead, this was transferred to the online world and, in a tribute to all involved, was a tremendous success.

It's an approach that is being repeated by another milestone event on the region's calendar, that of the annual Border Relay for Life.

Organisers have turned 2020's fundraiser into the Border Relay Your Way.

The team behind the concept are just as passionate as they have ever been and are hopeful the Border will match that commitment.

The reach of the large sums of money raised of course goes a long way, given the Cancer Council's priorities of research, prevention, advocacy and support services.

For this year, the event has Julie Collis as its "Relay hero of 2020". From getting behind Relay for Life on her mother's death from the disease in 2007, Julie has undergone a considerable cancer journey herself.

It has been a story of diagnosis and treatment, of surgery, remission and the new challenges of the cancer's return.

But through all that she has remained strong, with a large part of that from not doing it on her own - in the same fashion as the support provided within the Relay for Life family.

As she says: "It was a shock in the beginning, but my family's positivity is what got me through. It was their strength though that has really helped me get through."

Now is the time to honour her story and in so doing, the story of everyone else touched by cancer by supporting this vital cause.