CAEL FAY

Medallist

Fundraiser and charity ambassador

Cael Fay was four years old when his passion for charity donations began.

With a baby brother on the way, Fay wanted to buy his sibling a car seat. But when his parents said it wasn’t needed, he decided to give his savings to a charity providing equipment for midwives in Cambodia instead.

The following year, Fay was given $20 to buy a toy for Christmas. But he asked to give the money to help people less fortunate than himself.

The Fay family chose OrphFund, a volunteer-based charity which sends 100 per cent of people’s donations to some of the world’s poorest children.

Fay continued asking for donations rather than presents at birthdays and Christmas and now, aged eight, has given more than $15,000 to OrphFund projects and is an official ambassador for the charity.

“I was quite surprised and very happy,” Fay says of being made a charity ambassador at such a young age. He has also raised money through crazy hat and crazy hair days at school, garage sales, movie nights and collection tins in cafes.

Fay was recently part of a Barbie ‘You Can Be Anything’ campaign and used his first pay cheque to donate $800 to pay for a year of high school for two students in Kenya.

“Don’t think of yourself, think about others. If you’re playing with a toy, someone else out there is probably struggling with life while you sit back doing something nice and fun,” Fay says. “Try to help people get to that point and help them be as lucky as us. Every little bit counts. Even one dollar.”

This may not sound like a typical eight-year-old, but Fay’s mum Creenagh says neither she nor husband Niall have been heavily involved in charities in the past, apart from some volunteering.

“Cael always thinks a lot more about things than most people I know. He thinks about what he does and how it affects other people,” she says.

“We have always had fairly candid age-appropriate conversations about how not everyone is as lucky as we are.

“People don’t give kids enough credit. Seeing how he’s been about the charity stuff, and how he’s been about the environment, I think it’s really obvious those are things he can very firmly grasp the concepts of and does care about.

“He sees he can make a difference and, as a kid, it’s pretty black and white. Why wouldn’t you?”

As proud as his family are, Creenagh says a lot of people are surprised by her son’s continuing choice of charity over gifts for himself.

“I think people underestimate kids and how much they want to make a difference,” she says.

“He’s always coming up with new ideas.”

Today, Fay is working on a photo exhibition to raise more money and has started writing a cookbook and an animal facts book that he also hopes to sell for charity.

— Anthony Keane

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MARK NEVILLE FRANKLIN

Medallist

Digging in for the planet

He’s just 13 but Mark Neville Franklin already has a keen environmental conscience.

In the past three years, the member of South Australia’s Youth Environment Council has been involved in growing more than 2000 seedlings for Trees for Life, a community group aiming to revegetate the state.

And with his works with Scouts SA, Franklin has planted 270 trees in his local area.

The caring teenager also actions and leads initiatives with his peers in the aim of helping to educate others about environmental issues.

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CHASE MCPEAKE

Medallist

Workplace hero

When Chase McPeake arrived to work at a building site in Kilburn, he thought it was just an average day.

But when his colleague Danny Carabott suffered a massive heart attack and “died”, McPeake sprang into action to call 000, lift his mate out of the excavator he’d collapsed in and administer lifesaving CPR for eight minutes.

With the aid of a defibrillator, Carabott is now fully recovered.

“We work together almost every day now so it’s great to have him back firing on all cylinders,” McPeake says.

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JEMAL MUSSA

Medallist

A very good sport

Soccer helped Jemal Mussa through tough times after arriving as a refugee from Ethiopia six years ago.

After watching a game, he went on to play and scored a position in the Adelaide Victory State League.

Now a policeman, Mussa wants to give back to others walking in his former shoes and has collected more than 140kg of soccer equipment to send to the refugee camp he grew up in, in Kenya.

“I have always wanted to give back to the community I came from,” Mussa says.

Mussa’s efforts have been noted by the UN.

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MELISSA HAYNES

Medallist

Racing for a cure

Running a marathon is one of the toughest physical tasks imaginable. Doing it while suffering from deadly disease cystic fibrosis makes it almost seem like a superhuman effort.

Melissa Haynes was given a life expectancy of just 20 when she was born with cystic fibrosis. Now 27, she recently became Australia’s first chronic sufferer to complete a full marathon, and hopes to repeat the effort in New York in 2017.

“I’ve always loved fitness, and that’s what keeps me healthy,” says Haynes, who has raised more than $23,000 for research being conducted in Adelaide to find a cure.

“I’ve worked hard through physical activity to keep my lungs the way they are. Unfortunately some cystic fibrosis sufferers aren’t that lucky — they are connected up to oxygen tanks and in a lot more pain and on a lot more medication.

“I decided I really wanted to do something. I felt like I was healthy enough to tackle the marathon and I would raise money for the Cure4CF Foundation, which gives hope for people with cystic fibrosis like myself.”

The most common inherited disease in the developed world, cystic fibrosis affects 3000 Australians and 70,000 people worldwide. Sixty years ago children born with cystic fibrosis were unlikely to live to attend primary school. Today, medical advances have pushed the average life expectancy out to 38, but it involves hours of physiotherapy each day, taking up to 40 tablets daily to help digest food, nebulised drugs and several hospital visits each year.

“I’d love to raise more money for the foundation and create awareness,” says Haynes. “If we can advance finding a cure, that’s potentially going to save many lives.”

— Anthony Keane

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MARK PANEROS

Medallist

Returning a favour

When you’re at home for eight weeks with nine broken ribs, a punctured lung and a damaged collarbone, there’s plenty of time to think.

After a motorbike accident left Mark Paneros close to death, the Royal Flying Doctor Service rescued him.

So he embarked on a fundraiser for the RFDS to give back.

Paneros crossed the Simpson Desert on bike, foot and in a four-wheel drive, riding his bike 15km each day then walking that distance back to his vehicle and driving his truck to his bike’s location for 24 days straight.

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KENNETH LAMB

Medallist

Bushfire battler

Kenneth Lamb didn’t know anyone affected by the deadly bushfires sweeping through Pinery in November 2015 but that didn’t stop him from turning up alongside friends from the Cowell Lions Club to lend a hand.

Two people were killed, more than 70,000 stock lost and over 100 homes destroyed in the fire which burnt more than 82,500 hectares of land.

However Lamb managed to help more than 20 families get their lives back on track after the blaze thanks to his role in the recovery process.

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ROGER HORNE

Medallist

Ceaseless collector

We all know you can get money back by handing in your used cans and bottles but Roger Horne may be the first one to make it his life’s mission.

Horne has raised more than $100,000 for the Royal Adelaide Hospital’s Cancer Centre in 12 years by collecting over two million cans and bottles.

Horne has engaged local restaurants to donate their empty containers in that time and even arranges for someone to fill in for him when he is on holiday to keep the money flowing in for his chosen cause.

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