Bobby Skilton Outreach Car – Sporting Chance Foundation

The Regional Outreach and Shared Care Program [ROSCP] philosophy is to permit part of the care of children or adolescents with a cancer diagnosis to occur in their own communities.

The program relies on partnerships between the Paediatric Integrated Cancer Service [PICS], including the Children’s Cancer Centres at the Royal Children’s Hospital and Southern Health Monash Medical Centre and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and regional hospitals.

The PICS has, or is continuing to formalise arrangements with the following regional health services.

• Goulburn Valley Hospital in Shepparton
• Albury Base Hospital
• Barwon Health in Geelong
• Ballarat Health Services
• South West Healthcare in Warrnambool
• Bendigo Health Service
• Peninsula Health [Frankston Hospital]

The provision of the Bobby Skilton Outreach Car by the Sporting Chance Foundation has enabled regional clinics to be commenced and held in the regional centres. Approximately 325 appointments have been held so far, and estimates show that 75,000km of driving has been saved for families equating to approximately $98,000 in petrol costs. Further, the provision of regional clinics saves an average of four hours per family, per clinic.

Provision of the Bobby Skilton Outreach Car has enabled the Regional Outreach team to attend the regional centres for education purposes. So far, 241 staff across Victoria has attended workshops on procedural pain management in children and 107 nurses have attended full day workshops on paediatric oncology. Ten information sessions have been held for regional medical practitioners and paediatricians, with over 50 taking the opportunity to attend.

Overall, the Bobby Skilton Outreach Car has allowed the Paediatric Integrated Cancer Service to take some of the clinical out patient services to the regional areas. This has saved time and money for families and has decreased the stress of them travelling to Melbourne. The PICS has been able to provide sharing of expertise and formal educational opportunities in the local environments maximising the number of health professionals able to attend. The Bobby Skilton Outreach Car has permitted true and formalised regional outreach and shared care to commence and be implemented across Victoria.

Ken Callander Fellowship
Children's Cancer Institute of Australia

Childhood cancer scientist, Tammy Law, has been awarded the Ken Callander Fellowship from the Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation (SCCF) which will provide $225,000 over three years to support her research into Leukaemia.

The inaugural Ken Callander Fellowship has been awarded to Ms Law to do further research into Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), the most common childhood cancer with the aim to improve the chances of survival for children who relapse.

One in four children with ALL relapse as a result of Minimal Residual Disease (MRD), where a small number of treatment-resistant cancer cells persist during treatment.

"The work we are doing focuses on measuring the MRD of children who have relapsed ALL. The results from this trial will be used to determine whether measuring MRD at specific timepoints is able to identify children who will benefit from a bone marrow transplant or whether additional chemotherapy is required prior to a bone marrow transplant so as to reduce the chance of another relapse.

I really appreciate the opportunity Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation has given me to continue our research which will provide important information on how we can hopefully further improve treatment outcomes for children who have relapsed ALL and I would like to thank Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation for the funding they have provided to us," says Ms Law.

The Ken Callander Scholarship is granted to a young scientist undertaking a unique piece of research that will improve the outcome of children with cancer.

"I am very proud to have my name associated with the research to be carried out by Tammy.

I thank the Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation, of which I am a patron, and I wish Tammy all the best in her endeavours to try and win the fight against Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and thus save the lives of many young children," says Ken Callander.

Raelene Boyle Home Care Program

The OneTel collapse in 2001 affected many Australian organisations in many ways. One organisation to be hit hard by the collapse was the Home Care Program administered by the Brisbane Mater Children's Hospital.

Recognising the importance of this program the foundation made a committment to donate $250,000 over five years to ensure the program's survival. As a direct result this important program still exists and has been renamed the Raelene Boyle Home Care Program.

Today it enables children from the Haematology/Oncology unit at the Mater to be visited by a senior specialist nurse who administers medical treatment, support and therapy in the comfort of their own homes.

The procedures that are performed include administration of intravenous antibiotics, blood collection, administration of medications and chemotherapy, dressings, insertion of naso-gastric tubes and emotional support and parent education.

Children are visited in Tweed Heads, Gold Coast, Logan City, Ipswich, Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast.

Mark Taylor Home Care Program

Following the success of the Raelene Boyle Home Care Program, Sporting Chnace has set-up the Mark Taylor Home Care Program.

The Program is supported by Fujitsu, Harvey Norman and Telstra Stadium and, similar to the Raelene Boyle Home Care Program, enables children form the Haematology/Oncology unit at the Mater to be visited by a senior specialist nurse who administers medical treatment, support and therapy in the comfort of their own homes.

Raelene Boyle Scholarships

The annual Raelene Boyle Scholarship enables skilled young doctors who are studying in Australia to dedicate 12 months of their training to working alongside the nation's top cancer researchers.

Since its launch the foundation has awarded scholarships totalling more than $250,000. Our current Raelene Boyle Scholarships include:

Mater Medical Research Institute - Brisbane

Over three years the Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation provided $150,000 for research into breast cancer at the Mater Medical Research Institute. These scholarships supported Dr Chris Ho's research into the ways that a breast's blood cells can recognise the existence of a cancer cell and thereby trigger a response from the immune system.

Royal Melbourne Hospital - Melbourne

At the Royal Melbourne Hospital we have funded a $40,000 scholarship for research into the treatment of cerebral gliomas.

Gliomas are malignant brain tumours, which due to their intrusive nature cannot be surgically removed. The survival timeframe is usually less than 12 months despite advances in surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Prince Alexandra Hospital - Woolloongabba

At the Prince Alexandra Hospital we provide a scholarship that funds research into metastasis. Metastasis is the principal cause of treatment failure for children with cancer.

The research is aimed at understanding the behaviour of particular molecules in the progression of tumours and developing strategies for their treatment.

Mark Taylor Fellowship

Children's Cancer Institute of Australia - Randwick

At the Children's Cancer Institute of Australia the Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation has funded a $50,000 annual Fellowship to fund a research project aimed at improving the treatment of children with cancer, particularly neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is the most common solid tumour in young children and is particularly aggressive. It currently has an overall cure rate of less than 50% making it one of the most difficult cancers to treat.

Reg Gasnier Fellowship

Westmead Children's Hospital - Westmead

At Westmead Children's Hospital we provide a $50,000 annual Fellowship into finding ways to help children cope with the toxic effects of chemotherapy, therefore allowing their treatment to be less debilitating.

Many of the side effects of chemotherapy occur because chemotherapy drugs damage the bone marrow stem cells that produce all of our blood cells. This project has the particular aim of protecting children's bone marrow stem cells from the toxic effects of chemotherapy using gene therapy.