The Leukaemia Foundation is the Australian charity stopping blood cancer from wrecking lives.  
 
Your blood is a remarkable thing. It keeps you alive by giving your body what it needs, taking away what it does not and fighting off infection. 
 
Blood cancer stops your blood from doing what it needs to keep you alive and healthy. It develops in the places of your body where blood is made, but its exact cause is unknown. 
 
A range of things affect someone’s chances of surviving blood cancer; some can be beaten; some take your life and some stay with you forever. 
 
The Leukaemia Foundation exists for every Australian affected by blood cancer, including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma. 
 
Each day, another 50 Australians are diagnosed with blood cancer, joining more than 110,000 people living with the devastating impact of our second most diagnosed cancer. 
 
Currently, more than 220 people in ACT are diagnosed with blood cancer and sadly 70 Canberrans lose their life to blood cancer.  
 
The Leukaemia Foundation supports Canberrans by offering expert support, funding leading-edge research, and campaigning to make change for people facing any type of blood cancer. 

How your donation will help

Many Australians require immediate treatment after a blood cancer diagnosis.   
 
For regional, rural, or remote families, this means uprooting their lives and moving away from home to survive, spending weeks or months living away from home so they can access life-saving medical treatment in major city hospitals.  
 
The Leukaemia Foundation provides safe, urgent accommodation, a home-away-from-home at the John James Village in Garran ACT, close to Canberra Hospital for as long as needed and at no cost to the patient or family.  
 
This allows patients and their families to focus on one thing: getting well. 
 
Emma was just 14 years old and living in Canberra when diagnosed with leukaemia in 2005. Nothing was ever the same after that, she said. With no proper treatment facilities or protocol available to treat her as an adolescent, Emma couldn’t have treatment in her hometown of Canberra. What followed was an intense nine-month chemotherapy protocol followed by an 18-month maintenance treatment and a lot of travel back and forth to Sydney. On 4th May 2020, Emma celebrated fifteen years remission from leukaemia with her family.   Read more about Emma’s story here. 
 
Last year, over 1,500 nights of accommodation with the Leukaemia Foundation were provided to Canberran families helping them to access the treatment they need to save their lives.  
 
As incidence of blood cancer continues to grow, you can help people like Emma access the support and information they need to navigate a blood cancer diagnosis.  
 
Please give generously to the Leukaemia Foundation this Canberra Giving Day! For every $1 donated, it will be matched up to $5,000!