Testimonials

In March my son Andrew and I had a small, combined birthday celebration and instead of gifts we asked family and friends for a donation to your organization.

Even though it is not a large amount we hope it will be of some help to the ORU at The Children's Hospital at Westmead. We chose the OCF instead of other organisations as I had previously donated to you and we both wanted the money to go to research.

Strangely, it was only after we had made the decision to donate to OCF that I found out from reading the Westmead Chemo Chronicle and your literature, that Andrew and I actually knew the founding director of the OCF, Col Reynolds many years ago.

Andrew was diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia in January 1993 and underwent treatment at Camperdown. It was whilst he was recovering from his bone marrow transplant done early in 1994 and we were staying at Ronald McDonald House that we met Col. He was a bus driver trying to raise money for the children even then, and was very friendly and helpful and often took the oncology children on bus trips. After all these years Col would not remember us but we do remember his kindness.

Quite a coincidence! If you are in contact with Col, he may like to know that one of the children he helped all those years ago is now 30, has travelled the world and is still going strong.

This is an article by Andrew Strutton on ' Col Reynolds- a driving force for kids with cancer ' which appeared in the Townsville Bulletin on Saturday 26th July 2008.

"He appears to be an ordinary person, doing extraordinary things, and with a determination to match. I am sure many, many parents, grandparents, relatives owe you more than a big ' thank you ' and I hope you can keep up the good work for the appreciative children and families" Joy McLean, Pallarenda Townsville Qld.