SARAFINA Carrano, 4, is a special little girl. On Sunday, October 26, she became the 15,000th child living with cancer Camp Quality has helped with their resilience-building outings over 30 years.
This will be the first ever outing Sarafina has had with the charity since finishing chemo treatment. The 15,000 milestone was marked by Camp Quality’s Fun Day for 25 families.
They went Whale Watching, and left from Darling Harbour’s Cockle Bay Marina in Sydney. Sarafina’s family met Camp Quality in hospital, and the charity supported her throughout her treatment. Now she has completed treatment, she can catch up being a normal four-year-old again, without having to return to hospital at the end of the day – making this a landmark day for both Sarafina and Camp Quality.
Sarafina, from Merrylands NSW, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia just before her second birthday. Her mum Donna Carrano said: “Camp Quality does something very special. They bring your family back together after all the stress and anxiety and they put you in a space where, for the first time in months and months, you aren’t thinking about anything except for laughing. It’s what your soul needs so much at a time like this.”
Camp Quality’s Fun Days allow families to de-stress after such a traumatic time. They are designed to enable kids to reclaim some of their childhood after the intensity of the cancer journey. Families get the chance to network with others who are going through a similar thing, so parents can share stories and build strength and optimism.
Over 30 years Camp Quality has run resilience-building programs for children living with cancer and their families right across Australia. Nationwide the charity has 2,500 volunteers who outnumber paid staff 23:1, saving hugely on costs.
The charity receives no ongoing government funding and relies entirely on donations to run their programs. To donate visit www.campquality.org.au/donate
Ryan Fritz
Ryan Fritz started The Advocate in 2014 to provide not-for-profits and charities another media platform to tell their worthwhile hard news stories and opinion pieces effortlessly. In 2020, Ryan formed a team of volunteer journalists to help spread even more high-quality stories from the third sector. He also has over 10 years experience as a media and communications professional for not-for-profits and charities and currently works at Redkite, a childhood cancer charity.
