‘Fundraising for Pa’ – inspired by a future Philanthropist
On Tuesday 12th of June, Emily Riddle, her Mum Dana and her Grandparents visited us at the RAH Research Fund Hub to make a donation of $263.60 towards Cancer Research.
Emily is 9 years of age and has spent the past few months fundraising by her own initiative. Emily’s mum Dana wrote to us to share her story which we thought was truly heart-warming.
“On the 2nd of January 2018, Dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 Oesophageal Cancer, with secondary cancers in his Liver and Lungs. As you can imagine, our world was crushed. We are a very close family, and in particular, Dad has a very close bond with his much adored grandchildren. It was a few weeks later when Emily (who had been busy outside painting) came to me and asked me to ‘check her sign’. I followed her out to under the veranda to discover that she had created a sign advertising “Stuff For Sale”. She had received some plaster figures and trinkets as a Christmas present; and she had hand painted each one and was wanting to sell them for $1 each to raise money to help cure Pa’s cancer. And sell them she did – cornering every person who happened to visit our home to make a purchase for a good cause. I recall that when we got to the first $10 raised, Emily asked me, “Do you think $10 is enough to cure Pa’s cancer?”. I told her that the Doctors and Scientists could very well be only $10 away from finding a cure and that every little bit helped. At that point – we never imagined we would reach over $200! People were wonderfully generous with their donations – in the end, the plaster figures ran out, but the money kept coming! After a few months Emily’s tally had reached $263, and knowing that we were going to have a trip to Adelaide for a PET scan for Dad we started researching where we would like the money to go. After much deliberation, we decided that the RAH Research Fund was the perfect place. Hopefully, Emily’s donation will help all of your wonderful researchers work towards finding a cure, and maybe one day, spare other families from the heartbreaking journey of loving someone (or living) with cancer.” Dana Riddle
If you are inspired to raise funds for medical research and the RAH Research Fund, please contact Ketrah Parsonage, Community Engagement & Events Officer on (08) 7074 1444 or via email Ketrah.parsonage@sa.gov.au
