The rally involves 500 people in teams of two, driving cars worth less than $1000 (aka shitboxes) across 3200km from Hay to Adelaide.

The participants leave Hay on Friday, March 26, and for one Wagga woman the cause is close to her heart.

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Barbara Hill will have her name painted on one of the rallying shitboxes, alongside the name of her great-niece, Billie Grace Richards.

Billie Grace, 3, passed away last year with leukaemia, only three days after her diagnosis, Miss Hill said.

"It's very hard knowing that she passed and I lived," she said.

Miss Hill herself was diagnosed with breast cancer and lymphoma early last year and she said anything that will raise awareness, and money, for people like her is a massive help.

"This means the world to me, this rally. Because it's raising awareness for cancer," she said.

Shitbox Rally founder James Freeman brought the idea to life after losing both of his parents to cancer within 12 months, and for the first rally back he wanted to include his favourite places to drive, starting with Hay.

For Mr Freeman, the event is about humour and the adventure and challenge of seeing Australia by car. But it's also about the people, and the catharsis that the trip can bring to them.

"You're surrounded by a whole lot of people who have a similar story, or have gone through something similar to yourself," he said.

"On the rally it's open slather, if someone has cancer, or if someone is dealing with grief, then it is something that they can talk with people openly about."

The event is the largest independent fundraiser for the Cancer Council nationally, with more than $28.8 million raised since the rallies began. And the funds raised go a long way to helping with the day-to-day expenses for people in places like Wagga, which has a dearth of affordable treatment options.

"If I lived in Albury, or Orange or Tamworth or Canberra, then [treatment] would be free. But because it's private here, we have to pay," Miss Hill said.

"They help people at grassroots, it's not just about research. They help families with payments for everyday living. They helped me with my gas, my electricity, so I could survive."

Team Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is rallying with Barbara and Billie Grace's names adorning their car and they are making a pre-rally pit-stop in Wagga on Thursday, March 24, at 1pm in the Sturt Mall carpark.

Locals can sign the car with the names of their own loved ones who have been touched by cancer, as well as donate to the Cancer Council.

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