By Tia Priest-Willimott

Helping patients feel safe and supported when cancer is diagnosed, by providing unbiased financial support – that’s the goal of the local not-for-profit organisation Rise Above.

And that’s been the goal for the last 40 years.

Yvonne Cuschieri, the woman behind it all, started simply by raising funds for 13 local teenagers to attend a program for young people impacted by cancer.

In March 1986, she invited friends to help and the first Cancer Support Group meeting was held. 

Over the next 15 years, the group expanded as the number of requests for help increased. 

Today Rise Above has become a familiar name for Canberrans fighting cancer.

Earlier this year Renée Watson took the wheel as CEO of the organisation.

“When you’re going through cancer, life hits really hard and not just because you’ve had that cancer diagnosis,” Renée says.

“The impact of the treatment means that you often can’t lead a normal life or do normal things which can sometimes be the difference between accessing treatment or not.”

While some things have changed over the 40 years – including the name from ACT Eden Monaro Cancer Support Group to Rise Above – the core focus has remained the same. 

“We provide them with funds to make life a little bit easier. That’s things like food, medicine and petrol that are essential parts of going through the chemotherapy treatment,” Renée says. 

“By far, the most used part of the funding is for food and fuel – we give out vouchers that people can use at Woolworths.”

One of the biggest growth areas the Rise Above team has seen is funding for supplemental food, which is full of nutrition for people who can’t eat properly.

“We’ve got a lot of patients who have head or neck cancers, or the chemotherapy means that they can’t eat and that supplementation is eye-wateringly expensive and very, very hard to get hold of,” Renée says.

“So, we’re supporting a lot of people with that because you can’t get better from cancer if you’re not getting properly nourished.

“Quite a lot of the funding we raise comes from direct donations from individuals and the nice thing is that every single dollar that gets donated goes straight to the patients. 

“There’s no six degrees of separation, Rise Above is very much in the community, and local giving stays local.”

Some of the organisation’s core costs are covered by grants, particularly one from the ACT Government, as well as an increasing corporate partnership with local businesses.

For its 40th anniversary, Renée says they’re introducing a range of activities including monthly patient gatherings which will be really casual and a chance to talk and share.

“We’re also working with Music in Canberra to hopefully create a Rise Above choir, then in October, we’re going to do a posh long lunch which will be a big fundraiser,” she says.

“Then in 2027, we’ll be finishing the big 12 months with the revived Convoy for Cancer.

“This was a massive Canberra annual event where a parade of trucks and motorcycles would go through the city and into Queanbeyan and then it would finish up with a big festival,” Renée says. 

Looking to the future, Rise Above plans to keep supporting more locals throughout their entire cancer journey. 

“There’s this point at the end of the cancer treatment, where it’s almost like the medical system and a lot of the support services just brush their hands together and tell people to almost get back to normal life,” Renée says.

“I would love to think that Rise Above is really ideally positioned to see if there is more that we could do to enable people to build those stepping stones to get back to whatever normal life looks like for them.”

With 836 local patients supported in the past 12 months, Rise Above continues to provide hope for those experiencing cancer.

“People who do support us in any way, whether that’s a donation, fundraising, or volunteering, can know that the support stays local,” Renée says. 

“Cancer is a pretty horrible thing but we’re about raising hope, making life easier and putting a bit of a silver lining on an otherwise terrible time.”

Support Rise Above or register for support at riseabovecbr.org.au or call 6297 1261.

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