Upper Great Southern Rotary clubs sponsor Cancer Council WA Crawford Lodge room for regional guests’ treatment

Four Upper Great Southern Rotary clubs have partnered to provide regional people undergoing cancer treatment and their families with free accommodation in Perth.

The Katanning, Kojonup, Wagin and Narrogin Rotary clubs contributed a combined $8000 to sponsor room 102 at the Cancer Council WA Crawford Lodge to support its Adopt a Room Program.

For the first six months, 41 regional guests have stayed in the double room to access cancer treatment and related appointments in Perth, travelling from 21 towns from Albany all the way to Broome, with the longest stay totalling 42 days.

Katanning Rotary Club secretary Chris Richardson said their club had been donating about $3000 a year to the Crawford Lodge for the past decade before approaching neighbouring club’s with the idea to sponsor a room together.

Katanning donated $3000, Kojonup put in $2000, while Wagin and Narrogin contributed $1500 each.

Mr Richardson said rural Rotary clubs are quite small which posed challenges, but by coming together “we could make a difference”.

“We were keen to support services that supported rural folk,” he said.

“The bottom line is about making a difference for those in need that travel from the country to the city and support those families.”

A family who stayed in room 102 while their 13-year-old daughter received treatment for leukaemia wrote a letter thanking the clubs.

“Thank you to the wonderful sponsors that has allowed us to focus on what matters most, without the worry of where would we stay and how we would manage a year so far from our home,” she wrote.

“This room has given us many precious memories.

“With hubby on unpaid leave for a year this has given us the time and space to get our (daughter) home and healthy again without financial debt.

“We are eternally grateful for that.”

Mr Richardson said they were “pleasantly surprised” by the feedback and glad to see the room had been “widely used”.

“The feedback is pretty touching, there aren’t too many families that aren’t touched by cancer somewhere along the line,” he said.

“And one of the ones that really tugs at the heartstrings is cancer affecting kids, so over time we’ve pumped a lot of money towards cancer research for kids.”

Mr Richardson said the Katanning Rotary Club also donates $2000 to the Ronald McDonald House Charities and between $12,000 to $15,000 to cancer research yearly.

He said the Rotary clubs plan to sponsor room 102 for years to come.