How you can join Redkite and Coles in supporting families facing childhood cancer

Many families cancer charity Redkite aids travel more than 100km for treatment – but shoppers can lend a hand.

A third of the families children’s cancer charity Redkite supports have to travel more than 100km in a single trip to access treatment – but help is at hand.

A review of a decade of families’ travel data by Redkite reveals just how much impact distance to services has.

The further a parent travels for their child’s cancer treatment, the greater the impact on their emotional wellbeing and financial burden.

Faye Gerrey and her family, of Wollongong, are in a quarter of NSW families who regularly drive more than 100km to take a child to hospital.

In May last year, her daughter Charli, then 9, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. She has had almost a year of intensive chemotherapy, with another six months of treatment ahead.

“The family has been running on adrenaline since Charli’s diagnosis,” Ms Gerrey says.

“There’ve been lots of tears – hers and mine.

“Charli has been hospitalised more times than we care to remember. I’ve lost count of the number of kilometres I’ve driven … it must be thousands.”

With the support of Redkite, Ms Gerrey has been able to pay for bills, groceries and petrol.

“Redkite social workers helped my family navigate the traumatic new world of childhood cancer we were thrown into,” she says.

There are just eight hospitals in Australia where treatment is provided for paediatric cancer. Families must sometimes travel to interstate to access them.

“Families endure long and expensive car trips with a nervous and unwell child,” Redkite’s Emmy McIntosh says.

“Rural and remote families often need to split up for weeks, sometimes years, with a parent and their child moving to a home in a new area.

“These changes are costly, they disrupt family life, and can be a huge cultural shift from rural to city life, and away from important support people, community and culture.”

Since 2019, Coles Express customers and team members have donated more than $2m to support families facing childhood cancer.

From today until December 12, Australians can support Redkite by rounding up purchases to the nearest dollar at Coles Express checkouts.

Funds will help Redkite’s vital financial and mental health support for families.

“Coles Express is passionate about supporting the community and our team members love getting behind Coles Express Redkite Week to help families,” Coles Express executive GM Michael Courtney says.

Originally published as How you can join Redkite and Coles in supporting families facing childhood cancer