Yvonne Anthoney has been awarded the Lifeline 2018 Women of Spirit Award for her work with Canberra charity, Dainere’s Rainbow Brain Tumour Research Fund.
The Lifeline Women of Spirit Awards are held each year, “celebrating inspirational women in the community”.
Yvonne lost her 15-year-old daughter Dainere in 2013, after an inoperable and incurable recurrence of High Risk Medulloblastoma, a common form of paediatric brain cancer.
Dainere spent her time in the community raising funds and awareness for paediatric brain cancer, and Yvonne carries on her daughter’s work.
Through Dainere’s Rainbow, in conjunction with the Sydney Hospital Foundation, Yvonne and her family raise awareness and funds for the research of Associate Professor David Zeigler and his team at the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation Kids Cancer Centre, working to “improve the outcomes for all children diagnosed with brain tumours”.
“[Dainere] always from an early age had such a generous spirit, continually wanting to help family, friends and others in any way she could,” Yvonne says.
“When diagnosed with brain cancer and faced with so much pain, suffering and knowledge of the outcome of her life, [she] so selflessly chose to go out and create a difference in other people’s lives. She was and remains a tireless, courageous, devoted, inspiring, passionate and selfless advocate for paediatric brain tumours in the community.”
Yvonne says she is “humbled, honoured and proud” to have her work recognised by the Women of Spirit Award.
“I was actually so utterly surprised and shocked to hear my name announced; as the work that I, the rest of the family and our amazing committee do is not to receive anything but to give a gift.
“I am so touched to think that through such tragic, incomprehensible and devastating circumstances – the death of a beloved child to brain cancer – that a path of hope and light can be found to help others.
Yvonne hopes the award will increase Dainere’s Rainbow’s platform and allow Dainere’s ideas, goals and projects to come to fruition.
“Receiving this award is, I hope, a special blessing and will have an enormous and positive impact and enable an expansion of the work that Dainere’s Rainbow does to elevate awareness, provide effective support, creation of new initiatives and significantly increase fundraising capacity within the community.
“Every child deserves the chance of a future and it is only through vital community support that crucial research projects and programs can be undertaken to offer new hope.”
For more information, visit daineresrainbow.com.au
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