FORTY years of helping leukaemia sufferers in Mount Isa was celebrated with a dinner, laughter, an anniversary cake and plenty of memories in Mount Isa at the Irish Club on Wednesday.
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Treasurer of the Mount Isa Branch of the Leukaemia Foundation Kathy Swift said all seven of those who have been around for 40 years attended the dinner, even those who no longer live in Mount Isa.
“Dr Ian Bunce who is now a consulting specialist at the Wesley Hospital in Brisbane, came to Mount Isa to help us out and he treated a young girl who started all this and her name was Lisa Gamer,” Kathy said.
“She came back here in the final days of her leukaemia and she said to her mother, ‘when I go mum, will you do something for the people I’ve left behind’.”
Ms Swift said that after Lisa died her mum Elaine Gamer and her husband Mal decided to honour her request so they started up the Mount Isa branch.
“My brother said to me Mrs Gamer was looking for help to raise funds and he said, ‘will you help her’,” she said.
He had asked the right person as Kathy had been raising funds since she was about 14.
“I started off with the CWA with my mother cooking cakes and I just love fundraising,” she said.
“And here I am 40 years later still fundraising.”
The branch first met at the Catholic School and did everything imaginable to raise funds, Kathy said.
“We picked up manure and sold it at night and Mr Alonso from Steelcon Cava, he supplied the trucks as a young man and he has been helping us along the way for so long,” she said.
“People passed on or moved along and when Elaine Gamer moved to Brisbane she said ‘Kathy will you keep the branch’.
Every Saturday, Kathy and her sister Joyce Nielsen can be found in the shopping centre at her table collecting for the cause.
“If a patient comes to us with a certified document, I’ll write them a cheque no questions asked,” she said.
“They are embarrassed and say ‘Kathy, you can’t do that’ and I say ‘that’s what’s we are working for’.”
Mr Alonso was at the dinner and said he liked to support people with cancer.