By Ron Lane
This Saturday 5 August, at 8am, veteran members of the Noosa Heads Surf Life Saving Club will assemble at the club to welcome a bus load of very special young people – not only will they say welcome, but also provide a barbecue and refreshments.
Also on site to meet these children and make them feel welcome, will be lifesavers who will have completed their early morning training routines.
The bus is the vehicle that will be transporting the Kids with Cancer Project team – and on board will be not only the workers but the children themselves. You won’t have a problem recognising the big bus, for it is pink and along the side is painted the project slogan; “Kids with Cancer Need Science”.
Apart from meeting the kids the clubbies will have the opportunity to meet with the founder of the project Col Reynolds OAM, a “former” retired tourist bus driver. The club has arranged for the bus to be parked in front of the clubhouse, thus giving people the opportunity to learn more about this fantastic project.
Starting at Townsville, the bus will be on the road from 2 August, stopping in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT, before arriving in Sydney on the first day of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, 1 September. Ending at the Childrens Hospital at Westmead, it will have covered a distance of almost 10,000 kilometres.
Events have been organised at each stop to bring public awareness to the issue. In a pamphlet released regarding the project, Mr Reynolds said he first became aware of kids cancer, driving past a children’s hospital in 1980.
He then went on to establish the independent national charity in 1993.
This he did after discovering funding research and clinical trials were the only way to stop a children’s disease more deadly than any other. Thus the funding for this project is of the utmost importance.
“In Australia each year 950 children are diagnosed with cancer and three will die every week.”
Further to this he went on to say the project was inviting all Aussies to go online or attend their local event and make a pledge for science.
“Together we can show the kids suffering with cancer and their families that they do not stand alone.”
