Every year, Michele, Terena and Darryl set a table – and every year, it looks completely different.
One year it's paella in a gallery courtyard, shared under a perfect September sky. Another, it's Greek feasting at Ikaros Hall. Vietnamese. Sri Lankan. Indonesian. Their Longest Table event has become known for one delicious tradition: a different cuisine, every single year.
At the centre of it all sits their dessert table – a spread of sweet treats made by Michele and Terena (occasionally extras bit donated from friends, family and small businesses) guests can purchase on the day, with every dollar going straight to their fundraising total. It's simple, it's fun, and it works.
From 13 Guests to a Movement
It didn't start big. The very first Longest Table hosted by the Popes welcomed just 13 people to Chu's restaurant on Unley Rd, on a quiet Monday night. They raised $2,900 – and back then, that felt huge.
They kept it there for three years, before COVID pushed them outdoors – into a gallery on Sir Donald Bradman Drive, tables set rustically under open sky, paella simmering nearby. It remains Terena's favourite: around 60 guests, glorious weather, and an event that felt like it shouldn't have worked as well as it did.
Since then, they've taken their table around the world without leaving Adelaide – food trucks, buffet service, and venues to match: Ikaros Hall for Greek in 2021 (a firm favourite for Darryl), back to Chu's in 2022, Vietnamese in 2023, Sri Lankan in 2024, and Indonesian in 2025 – where the caterer also contributed an extra 10% on top of their donation.
And then there are the small, joyful extras – like the year they created and handed out Fruchocs showbags, watching guests tear them open and devour them on the spot. It's all part of the same philosophy: keep catering costs low, keep the fun high, and find creative ways to raise a little more from every guest.
How It Began
Terena discovered The Longest Table through a colleague. She'd hosted the biggest morning teas for years, and one day the conversations turned personal – what did you do, why, how? Something clicked. We should do this, she thought.
She told Michele. And Michele didn't need convincing – because for their family, this wasn't just a nice idea. It was history catching up with them.
The Reason They Keep Going
Michele, Terena and Darryl's father died in May 1978. He was 51.
He'd been diagnosed with melanoma back in 1972 – the kind of injury their dad used to joke to kids on the beach (he was a Nipper’s beach lifesaver) was a shark bite. Surgery and follow-up care in those days were basic by today's standards. Within a few years, the cancer had spread, affecting his sight and eventually his brain. It happened fast. He was gone within months. This year, he would have turned 100.
Cancer hasn't left their family since. Darryl has faced it more than once, across several decades. Their mother had skin cancer. Terena has had melanoma herself.
And most recently, two more diagnoses arrived within the same week: Terena's, and one for Darryl's daughter – who is a young mother herself. Both are currently in treatment, leaning on the care and research available to them today.
As Darryl puts it: we need to raise as much money as we can. I'm banking on medical research.
That's the driving force behind every dessert table, every themed feast, every guest who turns up year after year. The research that might have saved their father in 1978 still hasn't caught up – not fully. And Michele, Terena and Darryl aren't waiting around to find out. They're setting the table, filling it with food from every corner of the world, and asking their community to help fund the answers their family still needs.
Inspired to host your own Table?
Michele, Terena and Darryl started with 13 people around a table on a quiet Monday night. Ten years on, they've raised thousands for cancer research – one dessert, one cuisine, one community at a time.
You don't need a big guest list or a fancy venue to make a difference. You just need a table, some good company, and a reason that matters to you.
