2023 Donor Impact Report - Flipbook - Page 19
Our Giving Community
Charlie’s Rainbow continues
the courageous fight
Overwhelming community support for Charlie’s Rainbow.
Charlie Stevens was only 17 months when
he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid
Leukaemia (AML).
Symposium in Sydney in October was very
well received and we are now writing a major
grant application with this Sydney group.”
After a heroic fight, Charlie passed away aged
just three. In the wake of this devastation, his
mother Kelly Stevens knew she didn’t want
another family to go through the same gutwrenching experience.
The successful Charlie’s Rainbow ‘Move
Challenge’ returned for February 2023 and
515 supporters raised more than $35,000,
providing valuable evidence for a grant
application that the research by Prof Richard
D’Andrea’s team has strong community
support.
With a strong belief that the only way to
improve outcomes for children with similar
conditions to Charlie’s is through research,
Kelly established Charlie’s Rainbow and
began a series of initiatives fundraising for
paediatric cancer research at UniSA.
The $150,000 raised last year
supported full-time researcher Saumya
Samaraweera, a member of Professor
Richard D’Andrea’s research group, the
Acute Leukaemia Laboratory.
Left: 2022
supporters of
Charlie’s Rainbow
Right: Charlie
“Saumya has had a very important role
in progressing several projects and
collaborations, including our research into an
immunotherapy approach for childhood AML
as well as the collaboration with the ZERO
Childhood Cancer group in Sydney, which is
looking at the child's inherited DNA changes
and how to integrate this into treatment
decisions,” says Prof D’Andrea. “Saumya's
presentation at the ZERO Childhood Cancer
“We are so blessed to
have such a supportive
network of families,
friends and fellow
oncology families who
have been touched by
cancer in one way or
another.”
Kelly Stevens
“My family and I are determined to make
a difference for our precious Charlie, our
friends’ children who have lost their lives to
AML and those still fighting.”
chuffed.org/project/charlies-rainbow-2023
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