By Eleanor Wilson
“Everyone knows someone that has had a tough time with cancer,” said Woodlands Park Retirement Village resident Colleen Astbury as she gathered a range of homemade jams and relishes ahead of the Cancer Council World’s Biggest Morning Tea.
Ms Astbury is hosting the morning tea for residents of Berwick’s Woodlands Park Retirement Village next month to raise money for the Cancer Council, a charity very dear to her heart.
Recently recovering from skin cancer herself, the Berwick local said cancer is a far too familiar storyline for those around her.
“My sister is fighting cancer, as is my brother-in-law, my son-in-law was diagnosed last year and now has one lung at the age of 35, and many of my friends are also fighting the fight of their lives,” she said.
But Ms Astbury said it was the loss of her mother to the disease that really pushed her to raise money for the cause.
“My mum Betty was the kindest, most loving gentle soul. She looked after everybody’s children, she knitted and sewed and gardened for everybody she was just out to help,” she said.
“My sisters and I got together and said ‘we have to do this for mum’.”
“We’re still all alive, our mum isn’t. We lost our mum with cancer, and if I can save someone from going through what we went through then that is worth it.”
Although Ms Astbury has over a month before the big day of fundraising, she is wasting no time in ensuring the event raises the most money possible.
“I recently opened up my garage and filled it with vegies from the vegie farm and residents came and collected whatever they wanted on a ‘give what you can’ basis,” she said.
“We made $800 from that, so we’re going to hold another one soon.”
She said residents of the retirement village are also holding a sausage sizzle at Pakenham Bunnings on 24 April to raise funds, and are accepting donations and any other items that can be raffled and auctioned on the day of the morning tea.
A keen cook, Ms Astbury will be baking a range of sweet treats for the morning tea, including scones, sponges, cakes and slices.
She said fellow residents have also been keen to help in any way they can, making homemade jams and pickles to contribute to the morning tea and raffle.
Village manager Jennifer Kallaste said the retirement village was more than happy to allow Ms Astbury to use the facility as a place to hold the event.
“Colleen has been doing the event for years and she does a great job with it, and a lot of the residents are really looking forward to the morning tea as well so we are happy to do whatever we can to support the cause,” she said.
“It’s one of the biggest events we have at the village, and if we had more space to allow it to be bigger we would!”
The Cancer Council’s Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea sees individuals and communities across Australia come together to raise funds for those impacted by cancer.
The official day for the event is Thursday 19 May, but fundraising morning tea’s can be held throughout the month of May.
