What is the need for Sarcoma Awareness Month? 

Sarcoma is still considered to be the forgotten/neglected cancer, despite the AIHW predicting again in 2021 it would be the leading cause of cancer related death in the 10-24 year age group in Australia.

Efforts to fund research and drug development for sarcoma are more challenging due to a lack of awareness and understanding. It is difficult to raise funds for research if the community don’t know the nature of the cancer, or even worse, they have never even heard of it. 

During the 2021 Global Sarcoma Awareness Month, we aim to further highlight:
⁃ The critical need for early diagnosis,
⁃ Symptoms and ‘red flags’ to be aware of,
⁃ When you should see your medical professional, 
⁃ Your rights as a patient, and 
⁃ The need for timely referral to a specialist clinician/team.

It is also a month when we acknowledge those patients living with a sarcoma diagnosis and ongoing treatment, and those who have completed treatment and resumed their lives. And of course, remember those who tragically lost their lives to this insidious cancer.

We team once again with our colleagues from across the Nullabor, @sockittosarcoma to produce the national awareness campaign, which will include a powerful video, and our podcast season 2 – Let’s Talk More About Sarcoma.

We’d like to thank patients Mika, Margaret, Celso and Jack, along with experts Dr Antoinette Anazodo and Sarcoma Nurse Katie Thomson, for helping to create this moving yet informative piece.

We wish to thank the amazing team @by_enthral – in particular Jordan Laing & Emma Robertson for their creative direction, and for donating their time and all agency costs involved for the video. This meaningful production would not have been possible without their generosity. 

We also extend our gratitude to @cathrinemahoney and @darcymilneee for their outstanding work once more on the podcast for the second year running.

Help us this July, in spreading awareness about sarcoma, to help end the needless loss of lives. 

Australian media heavywieght and Nova radio host Michael “Wippa” Wipfli and highly accomplished media public relations executive Cathrine Mahoney came into Cooper’s life at a time when he was not keen on letting the outside world in.

He had very little time for anyone outside his inner sanctum of precious few people beyond immediate family.

Cooper’s condition had been deteriorating swiftly and savagely, and the outside world, even those closest to him throughout his brief life, were shut out. He did this to protect his friends. He wanted their memories of him to be positive, and not what he had become at the hands of sarcoma.

The exception to the rule were ‘Cath’ and ‘Wippa.’ Both very quickly became part of Cooper’s circle of trust and an extension of family.

Coop had a strong nose for genuine people and throughout the 18months from diagnosis to treatment, he ran his own race. He did not want to become the “boy with cancer” that elicited pity, he was hellbent on being the survivor, so becoming a token cancer patient for someone else’s personal gain, was never on the cards. He had avoided those who sought his company for pity, causing offence to some, but always sticking to his moral compass. He learned very early in the piece – Cath and Wippa were the real deal.

Both made Cooper laugh and times spent with them individually or together, were highpoints for Coops. Quality time spent with him away from cameras and media, resulted in a surprisingly strong bond and swift bond forming between the three. Unique as it was special. Each brought unbridled joy to his life when little else could.

Unsurprisingly, Cath and Wippa’s lives were impacted greatly with the news of Cooper’s passing, and from where our family stood, we couldn’t have blamed them for closing the door, and moving on. But neither chose to.

Instead, both continued with unwavering love and support for our family, at a time when we were at our lowest ebb. As a special aside, it wasn’t long before their respective families also became part of our lives, extending that very special bond, and providing enormous comfort through a myriad of highs and lows.

As we fast approach four years without Coop, Cath, Wippa and their families remain firmly by our sides. These remarkable friends continue to step up and do what they can to preserve Cooper’s legacy.

We have called on Cath and Wippa so often to assist with various projects along the way, and never once have they faltered.

Last year, both participated in the ground-breaking podcast series “Lets talk about sarcoma”, incepted and produced by Cath, giving up hours of their time and expertise to craft a finished product that resulted in a global distribution, and a meaningful tool for patients and families. Neither would accept payment in any form. Yet another labour of love, but one that held so much gravity.

Only two weeks ago, Cath and the highly talented Sarah McGilvray, who appears side by side with Wippa on the highly rating Fitzy and Wippa breakfast show, together with her role as co-creator of the very successful Nova production, “Not another parenting podcast’ performed for our guests at the annual CRBF Mother’s Day Breakfast, braving the Covid issues at the time, delivering a flawless and hysterical segment on parenting.

Which brings us to the announcement tonight.

Late last year, an unexpected call from Wippa advised us, albeit confidentially, he was going to take the Foundation with him onto the forthcoming Celebrity Apprentice Australia as his charity of choice. We were simply lost for words, and deeply humbled. We are a relatively new charity (4 years registered) and despite the high-profile charities Wippa could have chosen, he opted to choose the Cooper Rice-Brading Foundation, providing us with the opportunity of a life-time.

Filming for the Celebrity Apprentice Australia was incredibly rigorous over six days, and Wippa continued to burn the candle at both ends while filming took place, continuing is turning up each morning for a 6am start on his highly successful breakfast show, whilst also creating pilots for his production company.

This unspeakably difficult schedule did not only impact Wippa, but his wife Lisa, who was unwavering in her support. So many sacrifices were made by this family over the many weeks of filming, and for this reason, it is nigh on impossible to express our gratitude to Lisa, who at the time found herself juggling two children under the age of 5 and a new baby.

Tonight we have all watched on as Wippa’s dedication to advancing sarcoma, his bloody mindedness to ensure a win at all costs attitude, and never ending perpetuation of his very special friendship with Cooper, resulting in a win of enormous proportions. Funds that will make a quantifiable difference in the lives of the patients who are currently living without further treatment options.

We are thoroughly delighted to announce, Wippa’s outstanding efforts will be directed to supporting patients and families living with a sarcoma diagnosis, and toward the funding of a pivotal paediatric phosphoporteomic sarcoma specific clinical study through the Zero Children’s Cancer Programme, which will be named the Wipfli Family Sarcoma Research Grant.  This funding will support the Sarcoma Research Laboratory of Dr. Emmy Fleuren at Children’s Cancer Institute. Funds will be allocated to identify activated (phosphorylated) targets in sarcoma patients not covered in any other project, and will build the laboratory evidence needed to ultimately transform research findings and clinical recommendations.

It is impossible to articulate our thanks to Wippa, his beautiful family, for an opportunity which is rarely granted to a charity in its formative phases. This funding will provide the very real possibility of saving young lives, and will start a much needed conversation about sarcoma.

How blessed are we that Cooper left us the gift of friendship with his two special friends and their extended families?

We wish to thank the profound generosity of our Mother’s Day Breakfast donors for making this event possible.

We would ask that if you have the opportunity to support these individuals and corporations, we would urge you to do so.

Our deepest gratitude to Robin Todd for sourcing these beautiful prizes, and to each of the businesses that appear on this page, who have supported the funding of sarcoma research in Australia

Young adults living with incurable illnesses will have access to respite care when Australia’s first hospice for young people opens on Sydney’s northern beaches next year.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian together with major funders of the project, two of Australia’s leading philanthropists Kay and Greg Poche, today turned the first sods of soil at the site of the adolescent and young adult hospice, which will provide palliative care for 15 to 24-year-olds and their families.

The facility is the first of its kind in Australia, and will lead the way for similar facilities across the country for young people, who are currently forced to seek respite care in aged care facilities.

The facility cannot come soon enough. Young adolescents are over the age of 18, are currently no longer able to use the Bear Cottage paediatric respite facility.

The $19.5 million development is the result of combined state and federal government funding, community fundraising and philanthropy, supported by a very generous contribution from Kay Van Norton Poche and her husband Greg Poche.

Ms Van Norton Poche, who has supported Bear Cottage for many years, decided to back the project after learning young people were often seeking respite in nursing homes and rehabilitation centres.

“I just thought, we’re better than that. Dignity begins with life, and each life has it. So let’s give it to people that we can, when we can,” she said.

Member for Manly James Griffin said the facility would provide care for young people across NSW, including from rural and regional areas.

“This is a wonderful example of what happens when government, community and philanthropy come together to unite behind a single cause,” he said.