Rotary club's $50,000 gift for lodge

By NADINE MORTON

THE treatment journey for another cancer patient was made a little easier thanks to a donation by the Rotary Club of Orange Daybreak this week.

The club made a $50,000 donation to Western Care Lodge, which acts as a home-away-from-home for people as they undergo treatment for cancer in Orange.

Part of the funding for the 14-room lodge has come from groups  like Orange Daybreak. The $50,000 donation entitles Orange Daybreak to have a room named after them.

Club president-elect John Willing said it was a pleasure to help people in their time of need through this donation.

Mr Willing said it was the second $50,000 donation the club had made to the lodge.

“John Carpenter’s [Cancer Care Western NSW chairman] passionate plea to us in 2007/08 was enough to make us do it,” he said.

With one room already named after the club in the lodge’s stage one development, the club will soon have a second room named after it when stage two of the lodge starts in late April.

Mr Willing said it took the club two years to raise the money and the donation was just one of the ways the club supported the Orange community.

He said Orange Daybreak volunteers helped out at the lodge on a regular basis.

“One of the best ways to support someone is to talk to them about their illness,” he said.

Cancer Care West regional co-ordinator and fundraising chair Jan Savage said by naming rooms guests had the opportunity to see the work that had been undertaken by the community.

“It value adds to the stay and reinforces community ownership as well as assisting with the provision of funds for us to build in the past and the future.”

nadine.morton@

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