Northern NSW Region

Dorrigo Bowling Them Over With Generosity

After three days of fundraising, the Dorrigo Memorial RSL & Golf Club raised a whopping $6,000 for

Cancer Council NSW.

The fundraising consisted of two days of golf and a trivia night at the RSL. The rural community of

Dorrigo, which boasts a population of 1,072 people, pulled out all stops to raise funding and awareness

of men’s cancers.

Particularly in rural, regional areas we know men are less likely to see a doctor or discuss heath

concerns. What is less known is that more men are effected by cancer than woman and many of these

cancers are preventable.

Thanks Dorrigo - This is one little town making a big difference!!

Lower Mid North Coast Regional Tour, by

Sarah Rogers

Sarah Rogers (CRC) and Tim Chapman (CPC)

completed a tour of the Lower Mid North Coast from

24-26 September covering some 700km of road

over the three days.

The Lower Mid North Coast is made up of the LGAs

of Port Macquarie-Hastings, Greater Taree,

Gloucester and Forster-Tuncurry. These regions are

all managed by the Coffs Harbour team and the CRC and CPC conduct monthly tours of the area to

engage face-to-face and build capacity within each community.

As there are numerous cross over points between CRC’s and CPC’s, the Lower Mid North Coast staff

have been conducting tours where they travel to each LGA as a team and meet with members of the

region to overcome the challenges of engaging with communities located far away from Cancer Council

NSW offices.

This tour saw the team meet with both the Manning Valley Relay and Hastings Relay For Life

Committees, Do It For Cancer constituents, hospital social workers, Transport to Treatment drivers,

Pink constituents, and Stars of Hastings committee, a palliative care unit as well as six Daffodil Day

sites over three days.

“We do have an exhausting schedule” commented Tim Chapman. “But it is essential that we maximise

our time to make as many community touch points as possible and that the people within these

communities become familiar with Cancer Council faces”.

“By synchronising CPC and CRC engagement, it has increased our reach into the Lower Mid North

Coast community plus the long hours of driving give Tim and I plenty of time to discuss ideas and

strategies as to how to capitalise on opportunities and create new ones” added Sarah Rogers.

“We meet some incredible people whether they are volunteers, advocates, health care workers or

fundraisers and they seem to be genuinely thrilled to receive some face to face time with Cancer

Council staff”.

The 2018 Lismore & Villages Relay For Life Committee host third 'Lunch in the

Country' fundraiser!

With almost two years until the 2018 Lismore & Villages Relay For Life, the committee are already busy

with their fundraising. In August, the committee hosted their third 'Lunch in the Country' fundraiser, held

on a farm in Tregeagle, overlooking a field of cows and rolling hills.

Despite a few drops of rain, it was a beautiful day for the community to come together and enjoy some

home cooked soups, breads and cakes, all while enjoying music and dancing acts.

The Committee raised an incredible $1,600 towards their fundraising efforts for the 2018 Relay.

New Volunteering & Partnerships

Coordinator for Northern

Rebecca Blayney recently joined the team in Byron as

the new VPC for Northern. Coming from an Education

and Community Development background, Rebecca is

enjoying developing new skills and knowledge in this

role.

She’s most enthusiastic about nurturing Cancer

Council NSW’s partnerships and finding ways to make

our volunteer force even more sustainable. Originally

from Canada, Rebecca found herself in Australia nine

years ago, beckoned by her love of the ocean.

The 2017 Ballina Relay For Life Committee has

kicked off!

The Ballina Relay Committee has been out and about in the

community engaging interest for our upcoming Relay.

At the age of 76 our Committee Chair, John Woods, kitted up and

pulled his footy boots out of retirement for a charity game of AFL.

The match was a friendly veterans game between Ballina and

Lismore and was a fundraiser for the Ballina Relay Committee.

When we asked John what his motivation was to be involved in

this game his simple answer was “because I still can”.

Cancer Council Information Service - The new Byron Central Hospital

A successful PINK event was recently held to support the newly implemented Cancer Council

Information Service at the new Byron Central Hospital.

The commencement of the new satellite Cancer Care and Haematology service for the residents of

Byron Shire, offers patients the opportunity for a number of treatments and specialist consultations to

be delivered closer to home. The focus on case management and the continuum of care from

prevention, early detection, treatment and palliation is a key principle within the Cancer Care service.

The dedicated four chair department is purpose designed for patients attending for day only

procedures.

The unit currently opens from Wednesday – Friday, with trained Cancer Council NSW volunteers

providing a roaming service in assisting registered nurses with tasks, as well as supporting visitors to

the centre with Cancer Council services/resources available to them.

Community Programs Coordinator for the Far North Coast is delighted to add the service to our current

Information & Support Service portfolio and is looking forward to supporting the new partnership in

future years to come.

Pictured below with Dougal Bear are oncology nursing staff and our dedicated PINK event supporters.

The end of an era at Armidale Oncology

The end of the financial year also bought the end of

an era in the Oncology Department at Armidale

Hospital, with the nurse in charge of Oncology, Pam

Patemen resigning from her role.

Recent upgrades at Armidale Hospital in 2014 saw

the building of a new Oncology Department which

included the establishment of a Cancer Council

Information Service (CCIS) as part of the Oncology

upgrade at Armidale Hospital.

Pam Pateman was instrumental in developing the

partnership between Cancer Council NSW and

Armidale Hospital that allowed the CCIS to become

established and will be sadly missed in her

retirement.

Paul Hobson, Community Engagement Coordinator

for the New England, worked closely with Pam as

part of his role.

Paul was lucky enough to be able to catch up with

Pam during her last day on the job, presenting her

with some flowers on behalf of Cancer Council NSW

to thank her for the valuable contributions she made

towards the work of Cancer Council NSW in

Armidale and the greater New England community.

Peel High School Daffodil Day

Daffodil Day was another great celebration in the

New England/North West of NSW this year.

We had some incredible volunteer support including

a group of students from Peel High School who

assisted us by walking through the Tamworth

Industrial Business District selling Daffodils and

merchandise door to door.

The day was made even more special for the

students with a visit from Dougal Bear to top off the

morning.

Tamworth Physical Culture Club turns pink!

In the lead up to Pink Ribbon month a number of local North West organisations have begun hosting

Pink events. Last week a keen group of young and older dancers from Tamworth’s Physical Culture

Club held a Pink dance event during their weekly dance groups. Over the three Pink days the club

raised over $400.

Stephanie Cameron from the Tamworth Physical Culture Club, said “Pink Ribbon Day is very important

to our Tamworth Physical Culture Club because our members are all women and girls with mums,

daughters, grandmothers, sisters and girlfriends who have come into contact or have experienced the

effects of cancer. As a club we would like to make a contribution by supporting research, prevention

and treatment of cancers that predominantly affect women and girls.”

All the ladies involved got into the pink theme wearing a splash of pink during their dance classes and

enjoying a pink afternoon tea together.

Australia’s Largest Field Day turns 43

August every year sees Gunnedah, a rural community in Northwest NSW, welcome hundreds of

thousands of guests to Agquip, the largest agricultural field day in the country and the Southern

hemisphere.

This year Dimity and Kate from the Tamworth office, along with two office interns headed out for the

day to join forces with Healthwise New England Northwest and Newcastle University Rural health team

who were conducting free hearing checks, skin checks, blood pressure and glucose tests.

We took the opportunity to promote Daffodil Day, hand out Cancer Council information bags and do the

#ICare4PallCare activity with those passing by.

Dougal Bear also came along and took the opportunity to get in lots of selfies and get lots of hugs!

Tackling Tobacco- Dimity, CEM

In Northwest and New England areas we are

currently working with 4 organisations on the

Tackling Tobacco program including Billabong

Clubhouse in Tamworth who work with Mental

Illness patients, and Homes North, a housing

organisation.

The New England and Northwest also has a higher

than state average Aboriginal population, with over

50% in some of our communities. So, we were

excited to hear that one of the 8 Aboriginal Tackling

Tobacco grants had gone to Tamworth Aboriginal

Medical Service.

Before Christina from Cancer Programs and I had

met with TAMS they had already formed a steering

committee and have some fantastic ideas about how

they are going to spend the money including putting

it towards iPads for the Tobacco team to collect data

from the clients they work with.

TAMS have a staff of around 25 including doctors,

nurses, Aboriginal Health workers and Tobacco,

Alcohol and Other Drugs workers.

Tamworth Prostate Support Group- Dimity, CEM

The Tamworth Prostate Support group exists to support, inform and encourage those whose lives are

affected by Prostate cancer.

The group often has guest speakers and is open to men and also their wives/partners/carers and is

affiliated with Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

They also help Cancer Council NSW with several events including our recent Daffodil Day. The group

meets at the Tamworth Cancer Council Office on the second Wednesday of the month at 2pm.