Community & Business
2 February, 2023
Honouring Missy one race at a time
AT only 15 years old, Flynn Hyde is rally car racing for a cause, taking his best friend Missy Clarkson’s memory and legacy with him in the passenger seat.
When Flynn met Missy, they instantly became best friends, so much so that Missy’s mother Anj Mittelstadt considers Flynn a part of their family.
When Missy was diagnosed with her first bout of cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, their whole world turned upside down.
“Missy was my best mate in school, and she would always bring me food – a truly good friend,” he said.
“When she was diagnosed and was stuck in hospital, it was the worse, especially at school.”
Throughout Missy’s treatments she received nearly 200 blood transfusions and with blood becoming harder and harder to access, Anj started her organisation “Missy’s Donors” which encourages people to donate blood and plasma to people like her daughter.
Unfortunately, after being diagnosed with two more aggressive cancers – Myelodysplastic, which effects the bone marrow, and pure erythroid leukemia, a very rare cancer that effects 0.077 per cent of 100,000 people – Missy passed away in 2020 at age 13.
The news was a shock to the community, especially Flynn, who was also 13 at the time, but almost three years on, he is honouring her incredible journey and strength.
Not long after losing Missy, Flynn’s mother Bec Schaffer introduced rally car racing to him with hopes to teach him how to cope behind the wheel before getting his licence and fulfil his love of cars.
“My thinking behind getting him behind the wheel was for him to get lots of experience in a car before he actually got his licence,” Bec said.
“So that you know, if he came across a cropper somewhere while he had his licence, he knew how to get out of a spin or a drift or something like that.
“Him and his uncle Jeffery went and found a little Hyundai that had been laying in a paddock for who knows how long and they managed to start it up first try and then in September last year, Flynn decided to spray paint it and get it in the right condition to showcase Missy’s Donors.”
From the moment he got on the track, he fell in love and attended several khanacross events (a short dirt rally) in Mareeba and Tepon with FNQ Motorsports.
Starting the conversation on the track, Flynn was determined to encourage anyone and everyone he could to donate in hopes it could save someone’s life.
“Seeing the big ‘Missy’s Donors’ banner across the top of the car, I definitely get lots of questions about what it is and whether they sponsor me,” Flynn said.
“The fact is, I am not ‘sponsored’ by them. I am just spreading awareness for the organisation and my best mate and I always make sure they check out the website and encourage them to donate blood.”
Watching Flynn honour her daughter’s legacy every day, Anj is beyond proud of his effort to put the Missy’s Donors name out there.
“We are so happy to support Flynn – we just think he absolutely amazing,” she said.
“We are so happy to be able to support him in his journey and to see Missy’s Donors on the top of the car is just so cool.
“Missy would be so proud of him and even though she wasn’t a sporty person at all – more of a science geek actually – she would have sat on the sidelines and cheered him on.
“We just wish him all the success in the universe with this next year and what he wants to do and whatever he does here and reflects on the man he'll be in the future.”
Flynn will also be shaving his long ginger locks off in Missy’s honour before taking part in the 20th Great Wheelbarrow Race this year alongside many of Missy’s friends.
